Since May 2025, Tulip Patent Pool has continuously filed several patent lawsuits against Sunwoda at the Munich Regional Court in Germany.

Part 01 The construction and operating logic of Tulip Patent Pool

It’s an important strategic step to establish the Tulip patent pool by LG Energy Solution and Panasonic Energy based on global trends in the lithium battery industry, that the two Japanese and South Korean battery giants in Budapest, Hungary, in May 2024, jointly announced the establishment of Tulip Innovation Kft, which integrates 1,500 patent families, covering more than 5,000 patents. It’s widely regarded in the industry as a patent collaboration platform established to adapt to the fiercely competitive global lithium battery industry.

1►Patent coverage and layout

The patents within the pool are extensively related to key areas of lithium batteries, including materials, structure, and manufacturing processes, achieving comprehensive coverage from basic research stages to actual manufacturing processes. It is particularly noteworthy that these patents are not limited to single regions, they have a well-established layout in major global power battery markets including China, the US, Japan, South Korea, and Germany, laying a solid foundation for subsequent patent operations and enforcement actions.

2► Patent operational experiences referring and pattern forming

LG Energy Solution's extensive experience in patent operation provides valuable reference for the Tulip patent pool's operations. As early as 2017, LG Energy Solution successfully forced Amperex Technology Limited (ATL) to reach a settlement through a US Section 337 investigation. In 2019, it obtained a 10-year injunction against SK Innovation and received 2 trillion KRW in settlement fees. These successful patent operation cases have been replicated in the Tulip Patent Pool's operations, gradually forming a mature operational pattern of "Patent Layout - Litigation Deterrence - Licensing Fees," enabling the patent pool to realize patent value commercialization efficiently.

3► LG Energy Solution's strategic adjustment and patent transfer considerations

LG Energy Solution was spun off from LG Chem and became an independent company in December 2020, which is a crucial strategic adjustment in response to changes in the global lithium battery industry. Furthermore, transferring patents to the Tulip Patent Pool is further based on considerations of multiple commercial interests.

Part.02 The litigation strategy of the Tulip Patent Pool

The litigation strategy of the Tulip Patent Pool fully shows its deep insight into the global market, especially highly specificity on the choice of litigation venues and targets.

1►Choice of litigation venue: Germany becomes the core battleground

Germany, home to renowned automakers like Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, is not only the largest market for new energy vehicles (over 3.5 million EV sales in 2024) in Europe, but also known as having relatively strict patent injunction enforcement and damage award standards globally. The "triple injunction" (including ban on sales, recall, and destruction) issued by the Munich court, once effective, could directly and severely impact the European supply chain of the involved enterprises, thus pushing great commercial pressure on the defendants.

In terms of data on patent layout, the number of patents the Tulip Patent Pool holds in Germany accounts for 18% of its total globally, a proportion second only to China and the US. This geographical distribution of patents highly aligns with the Tulip Patent Pool's market development strategy, indicating that initiating lawsuits in Germany is a well-considered choice aimed at maximizing the impact of litigation based on Germany's market status and legal environment.

2► Choice of litigation target: hitting the core of Sunwoda's European business

Supplying batteries for the Dacia Spring model under Renault's Dacia brand, the key overseas business of Sunwoda is specifically targeted in this lawsuit. The model ranks third in sales volume among EVs in Europe, and its significant price advantage primarily relies on the cost support of the Chinese supply chain. By seeking a sales ban against this key product, it’s clearly of Tulip Patent Pool's strategic intent that hitting at this core business of Sunwoda could not only directly influence Sunwoda's business expansion and market share in Europe but also indirectly impact the supply chain landscape of the European NEV market, further consolidating Tulip's own patent advantage position in Europe.

Part.03 The dilemma of the game gambling: the patent weakness and market competition imbalance in China's lithium battery industry

Technologically leading but increasingly slowing, LG Energy Solution, with its rich technical reserves of over 25,000 patents, ranked third globally in the power battery market in 2023 with 96 GWh of installed capacity and a 14% market share. Particularly in Europe, its share reached 37%, showing strong technological competitiveness and market dominance. However, in Q1 2024, LG Energy Solution's global market share reduced to 13.7%, and its European market share decreased to 33%, showing clearly sluggish growth trend and facing severe challenges from Chinese companies.

On the contrary, rapidly expanding with accelerating market penetration, Sunwoda's global installed capacity in 2024 was only 18.8 GWh, with a market share of only 2.3%, lagging significantly behind LG Energy Solution, however, its installed capacity reached a rapid year-on-year growth of 73.8% in European market. Meanwhile, through collaborations with renowned European automakers like Renault, Volkswagen, and Volvo, Sunwoda is rapidly penetrating the high-end supply chain, continuously enhancing its market influence.

Facing the litigation from the Tulip Patent Pool, Chinese lithium battery companies have adopted distinctly different strategies. Actively defended but faced a severe ruling from the Munich court, Sunwoda was forced to initiate plans to build factories within the EU to avoid risks associated with the "country of origin principle". Besides, some other companies chose to compromise, paying patent licensing fees to the Tulip Patent Pool equivalent to 4%-6% of their European revenue. This situation of fragmented, uncoordinated responses allowed the Tulip Patent Pool to adopt a "divide and conquer" strategy, breaking down the defenses of Chinese companies one by one, further reducing the bargaining power of Chinese companies in patent negotiations, and exacerbating the overall patent predicament of China's lithium battery industry.

The patent layout for next-generation power battery technology will be the focus of global lithium battery industry competition. Once the Tulip Patent Pool has already completed its patent layout in areas like solid-state batteries and sodium-ion batteries beforehand, Chinese lithium battery companies will face even more severe patent blockades. Rather, if Chinese companies can achieve patent breakthroughs in these new technology areas, they are expected to reverse the current unfavorable situation in the global patent competition, laying a solid foundation for the long-term development of China's lithium battery industry.

From AutoIP

September 16th, 2025