Tesla targets Australian company in lawsuit over battery technology – report

Australian battery company Cap-XX is being sued by Tesla in a US Federal Court over alleged patent infringements.

Electric-car giant Tesla claims Cap-XX used elements of designs it owns the right to in its supercapacitors – which can be used to quickly store and deploy electricity – according to a report from news outlet Reuters.

The lawsuit appears to be a response to a patent dispute filed by Cap-XX in 2019 against a supercapacitor manufacturer acquired by Tesla in the same year, Maxwell Technologies.

“Cap-XX continues to pursue patent infringement action against Maxwell Technologies (which is still a wholly subsidiary of Tesla) and other parties,” the company wrote in a statement in June 2022, confirming it had already spent millions of dollars in legal fees at that point.

By 2021 Tesla had sold Maxwell Technologies to South Korean company UCAP Power – but kept the rights to certain technologies developed by the firm.

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“Maxwell has a history of innovation that has resulted in its own patents, now assigned to Tesla, and thus Tesla brings this suit against Cap-XX to protect its intellectual property rights,” documents from the latest court case state.

The lawsuit appears to directly contradict a promise made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

In 2014, Mr Musk wrote a blog post – which is still live on the company’s website – pledging “Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology”.

The blog post said the development of electric vehicles was progressing too slowly, saying it was “impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis”.

“Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers,” he wrote.

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“We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.”

While Cap-XX’s head office is located in Sydney, the latest case will be heard by a US Federal Court in Texas.

Drive has contacted Cap-XX and Tesla and this story will be updated with their statements.

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