BASF, Umicore in CAM patent deal

BASF and Umicore have entered into a non-exclusive patent cross-license agreement covering a broad range of cathode active materials (CAMs) and their precursors. CAMs are used in lithium-ion batteries and both firms have been investing in them heavily, creating what they called “sizeable and largely complementary patent portfolios”.

The deal covers over 100 patents families filed in Europe, US, China, Korea and Japan, relating to features such as chemical composition, powder morphology and chemical stability. The chemistries include nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM), nickel-cobalt-aluminium, nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminium and lithium-rich, high manganese high energy NCM.

The two companies said that this increases their ability “to customise their materials to meet the increasingly diversified and complex customer requirements at the battery cell and application level”. It will also help them to accelerate their product development in battery applications, they added.