LG Stole Trade Secrets for Producing Gallium Arsenide Solar Films, Says Complaint

LG Electronics used the “guise” of a “tentative investment offer” to gain access to the trade secrets of Alta Devices and built a line for producing thin gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar-energy films, Alta alleged in a federal complaint. GaAs technology “promises to be truly disruptive when it can be economically sold to broad market sectors,” said the complaint (in Pacer), filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Jose. “Any device, from a cell phone to a drone to an automobile to a laptop computer, when coated with thin GaAs solar film, can be powered by this independent energy source,” it said. LG, using confidential Alta information, "already developed its manufacturing capabilities to such a degree that it's now selling very similar thin GaAs solar film to early adopters, while moving or having moved toward full-scale, mass-commercialized economical production,” it said. “With its vast capital and manufacturing resources, LG, one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, threatens to drive Alta Devices out of business before Alta Devices can reach the stage of economical mass commercialization,” it said. Unless “restrained” by an injunction from using Alta’s trade secrets, Alta “will suffer irreparable injury and will not be able to compete effectively,” it said. LG didn’t comment.