BASF and Argonne reach resolution with Umicore over Li-ion NMC patents infringement claims
26 April 2017
BASF and Argonne National Laboratory have reached a business resolution of their pending Li-ion battery patent disputes with Umicore. Umicore is now licensed to make, use, sell, offer to sell, distribute and import nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cathode material for lithium-ion batteries in the United States under BASF’s and Argonne’s U.S. Patent Nos. 6,677,082; 6,680,143; 7,135,252; and 7,468,223.
BASF and Argonne are dismissing their pending action in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware against Umicore. The parties are filing a petition for rescission of the existing limited exclusion order with the International Trade Commission (ITC).
Patents on NMC reach back into the 2000s, with Argonne National Laboratory filing the first one in 2000 based on work done by Dr. Michael Thackeray, followed shortly thereafter by a patent filed by 3M based on work done by Dr. Jeff Dahn at Dalhousie University. BASF acquired licenses to the Argonne patents in 2009. (Earlier post.)
In 2015, BASF and Argonne National Laboratory sued Umicore for what they said was infringement of the Argonne patents for nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) cathode raw materials.
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