Tesla sues electric vehicle battery supplier Matthews for alleged disclosure of trade secrets

Tesla sued electric vehicle battery supplier Matthews International for allegedly disclosing its confidential trade secrets to other companies, including competitors.

According to the complaint filed Friday in the Northern District of California, Matthews allegedly breached his contract and improperly filed patent applications incorporating Tesla's trade secrets without the electric vehicle maker's consent.

The Texas-based company said that unless Matthews is stopped from continuing his allegedly illegal actions, Tesla would suffer immediate and irreparable harm after suffering monetary damages of more than $75,000 that would likely exceed $1 billion.

Tesla seeks an order requiring Matthews to pay Tesla its pre- and post-judgment damages, costs, expenses and interest for Matthews' improper actions.

“Since discovering Matthews' inappropriate behavior, Tesla has worked to block and/or delay the release of the affected applications, and only a subset of Tesla's confidential information regarding dry electrode manufacturing has been released. been published thus far,” the lawsuit states.

In 2019, Tesla selected Matthews as one of its suppliers of equipment that it used to refine its manufacturing of dry electrode batteries and put them into mass production.

Write to Sabela Ojea at [email protected]