On Feb. 6, Matthews International Corp. provided an update on the ongoing business dispute involving Tesla.
On Feb. 5, an arbitrator issued a decision on an arbitration demand filed by Matthews against Tesla in January 2024. This ruling acknowledged Matthews’ extensive, pre-Tesla background in manufacturing advanced Dry Battery Electrode technology and affirmed that the company has the right to sell its solutions to customers other than Tesla. Matthews intends to immediately resume marketing, selling and delivering its DBE products to other customers in the growing electric vehicle market, where battery and automobile equipment manufacturers from around the world seek to adopt Matthews’ innovative solutions.
“This ruling confirms our rights in this groundbreaking technology and re-establishes what we have been saying for years – that we have valuable solutions to support the advancement of dry battery electrode technology,” said Joseph C. Bartolacci, president and chief executive officer. “Matthews has been working in the battery space for over a decade, and we look forward to realizing the value of our DBE solutions and related intellectual property and continuing to innovate within the space.”
On Nov. 5, 2024, Matthews was awarded U.S. Patent No. 12,136,727 B2 entitled Systems for Manufacturing a Dry Electrode, and Matthews expects this foundational work to lead to further innovations and developments to support the expanding DBE industry.
Background to the Dispute
After exhausting efforts to negotiate a resolution to a dispute with its DBE customer Tesla that arose over a year ago, Matthews was forced to seek a declaratory judgment in a binding arbitration regarding Matthews’ rights to continue selling its innovative DBE solutions to others. While this arbitration was ongoing, Tesla initiated duplicative litigation in federal court, vaguely alleging that Matthews had stolen Tesla’s trade secrets, notwithstanding its agreement to arbitrate all such disputes.
Given Tesla’s decision to file a public action against Matthews in June of 2024 and in light of the importance of the arbitrator’s ruling, Matthews is compelled to update the market on this matter.
Follow FuneralVision.com on LinkedIn.
Follow FuneralVision.com on X.
Follow FuneralVision.com on Facebook.
