Energy & Sustainability IP Updates — August 2023

For the third consecutive month, Tesla finds itself involved in a new patent infringement lawsuit, this latest time as a defendant in an action filed by Graphite Charging Company LLC on August 4, 2023 in the Western District of Texas. In its complaint, Graphite accuses Tesla charging stations, Tesla electrical vehicles, and the Tesla App of infringing two U.S. patents formerly owned by IBM, U.S. Patent Nos. 8,103,391 and 8,291,243, directed to infrastructures for electrical vehicle charging systems. The case is styled Graphite Charging Company LLC v. Tesla, Inc., 1:23-cv-00925 (W.D.Tex. 2023).

On June 20, 2023, iQar, Inc. filed a patent lawsuit against Tesla, also in the Western District of Texas, alleging infringement of five patents by Tesla’s Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y. The case, styled iQar, Inc. v. Tesla, 1:23-cv-00694 (W.D.Tex. 2023), remains pending and has not yet been assigned a judge. Tesla filed its own lawsuit against CAP-XX on July 14, 2023 in the Eastern District of Texas in response to CAP-XX’s ongoing lawsuit against Maxwell Technologies, a company that Tesla bought in 2019 for its dry cell technology and then later sold to UCAP Power. This case is styled as Tesla, Inc. v. CAP-XX, No. 2-23-cv-00334 (E.D.Tex. 2023) and remains pending before Judge Gilstrap. Among other things, these recent litigations involving electrical vehicles are likely just the beginning of patent-based disputes in the EV/battery tech space as the industry unfolds, technology grows, and competition develops.

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