Lithium battery industry into the era of melee many companies enter to divide the "cake"

There are reports that Ningde Times has sued Honeycomb Energy for unfair competition.

In response to this news, Ningde Times, the relevant personnel replied to the Securities Daily reporter said, " the case is in legal proceedings, the company does not respond.”

Honeycomb Energy replied that it had followed the relevant media reports about the Ningde Times' lawsuit for unfair competition, and the company was actively preparing to respond to the lawsuit, and believed that the Ningde court will have a fair judgment.

Beijing law firm, a partner Zhang Jianhao lawyer told the securities daily reporter, " the Ningde era Sue honeycomb energy unfair competition, belongs to the Ningde era before suing employees non-competition disputes, through this lawsuit, intended to consolidate their own trade secrets, build intellectual property moat.”

Ningde era to fight the rights protection lawsuit

Securities daily reporter check the eye App found that Ningde era new energy technology co., LTD. New a court announcement, the defendant including Wuxi tianhong enterprise management consulting co., LTD., Baoding billion new consulting service co., LTD., honeycomb energy technology co., LTD., the related case for unfair competition disputes, the case will be on February 23 in Ningde intermediate people's court of the first court hearing.

According to several legal documents related to non-competition disputes related to Ningde Times, many Ningde Times employees joined Wuxi Tianhong and Baoding Yixin respectively after leaving, providing services to the rival of Ningde Times, Honeycomb Energy.

According to reports, the court determined that Wuxi Tianhong and Baoding Yixin are both related parties of Honeycomb Energy.Ningde Times believes that the nine departing employees violated the confidentiality and non-competition Agreement signed with them and asked them to pay damages of 1 million yuan in damages.

"Non-compete persons as stipulated in Article 24 of the Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China shall have the obligation of confidentiality.In the end, the court ruled that the departing employee had violated the non-competition obligation and constituted a breach of contract.If Ningde Times has obtained evidence that departing employees have leaked related trade secrets to Honeycomb Energy and its affiliates through previous lawsuits, then Ningde Times could be supported by the court."Lawyer Zhang Jianhao said.

It is worth mentioning that, as early as during last year's two sessions, Zeng Yuqun, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and chairman of Ningde Times, once submitted a proposal, saying, " Currently, lithium battery intellectual property litigation cases occur from time to time, and it is difficult for enterprises to protect their rights.In the process of rights protection, there are problems such as difficulty in obtaining evidence, high cost of rights protection, long rights protection, and difficulty of safeguarding trade secrets."

In July last year, Ningde Times filed a complaint on AVIC's lithium battery patent infringement case.At the time, Ningde Times said the patents involved involved invention and utility model patents, and that the suspected infringing batteries had been carried on tens of thousands of vehicles.

Competition among battery manufacturers intensifies

The disputes in the field of power battery mainly stem from the huge market interests in the new energy vehicle market.Some industry insiders said that the crisis facing Ningde Times is not only the intellectual property rights protection, but also the competition of more and more power battery manufacturers.

The industry insider told Securities Daily, " Now, the competition in battery factories is intensifying, and Ningde Times will face competitive pressure, including LG, BYD, China Innovation Airlines (formerly AVIC lithium battery), Guoxuan High-tech and other manufacturers with considerable technical strength.In terms of technology, each company also has some different technical routes and competitive advantages, such as BYD's blade, China Innovation Airlines' high voltage ternary, etc.”

The industry believes that the rapid development of domestic manufacturers such as China Innovation Airlines has formed a certain competitive pressure and threat to Ningde Times.The above insiders believe that although Ningde Times' global installed capacity reached 96.7GWh in 2021, the market share is 32.6%, ranking first in the world.However, with the expansion of other battery manufacturers, it will bring some pressure to the future development of Ningde Times.