Patent infringement lawsuit against LG

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 25 April 2025

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (596/2014/EU) AS THE SAME HAS BEEN RETAINED IN UK LAW AS AMENDED BY THE MARKET ABUSE (AMENDMENT) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS (SI 2019/310) ("UK MAR").

Nanoco Group PLC

("Nanoco, the "Group", or the "Company")

Nanoco commences patent infringement lawsuit against LG Electronics

Nanoco Group plc (LSE: NANO), a world leader in the development and manufacture of cadmium-free quantum dots and other specific nanomaterials emanating from its technology platform, today announces that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against certain defendants in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The lawsuit claims infringement of Nanoco's U.S. Patent No.'s: 7,588,828; 7,803,423; 7,867,557; 8,524,365. These patents relate to Nanoco's innovative technology for the synthesis of quantum dots.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are: (i) LG Electronics, Inc. and (ii) LG Electronics U.S.A., Inc., both of which are involved in the sale and distribution of components and fully assembled units for the display market, specifically televisions utilising quantum dots to significantly enhance the viewing experience of the user.

Nanoco has retained Caldwell, Cassady and Curry ("CCC"), an international IP law firm based in Dallas, Texas, USA, to represent it in patent enforcement and litigation. CCC were one of the legal firms who were involved in Nanoco's successful litigation against Samsung. 

In the lawsuit, Nanoco alleges that the defendants have wilfully infringed the Company's patents and seeks a permanent injunction from further acts of infringement and monetary damages. At this stage, the lawsuit does not specify the quantum of monetary damages sought by Nanoco and it may take some time before this is established.

Shareholders are reminded that a lawsuit can take several years to progress to a trial and there is never any guarantee of success or as to the monetary damages that may be awarded if the jury and/or court finds in favour of Nanoco.

While conscious of the potential risks involved in litigation, the Board is confident in the potential prospects for the Company in doing so, and would not be undertaking this if it were not clearly in the best interests of Nanoco shareholders.

The Company will keep shareholders updated on key developments.

Dr Jalal Bagherli, Nanoco's Chairman, commented:

"Nanoco proved the value and validity of its IP as part of the Samsung litigation process. At that time, we re-iterated our intent to aggressively pursue other potential infringers of our IP to ensure a fair outcome for shareholders of Nanoco. While there is potential for damages, litigation itself carries considerable inherent risk and the Board must weigh the opportunity versus the cost. In this instance, we believe the potential return to be worth the costs of commencing litigation.

Nanoco continues to remain open to finding a mutually acceptable commercial solution, but the action is appropriate to take at this time in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders, to defend one of our core assets."

- Ends -

MAR

The information contained within this announcement is considered by the Company to contain inside information for the purposes of UK MAR. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information will be considered to be in the public domain.

The person responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on behalf of Nanoco is Liam Gray, Chief Financial Officer.

Nanoco Group plc:

Dmitry Shashkov, CEO +44 (0)1928 761 404

Liam Gray, CFO & Company Secretary

Sodali & Co (Public Relations)

Elly Williamson +44 (0)79 3535 1934

Pete Lambie

[email protected]

Cavendish Capital Markets Limited (Financial Adviser and Corporate Broker):

Ed Frisby / George Lawson (Corporate Finance) +44 (0) 20 7220 0500

Tim Redfern / Charlie Combe (Corporate Broking)

Jasper Berry (Sales)

CDX Advisors (Financial Adviser):

Steven Foland +1 415 425 2224

Steve Month

Patrick Foley 

Notes for editors:

About Nanoco Group plc

Nanoco (LSE: NANO) is a nanomaterial production and licensing group, specialising in the production of its patented cadmium free quantum dots (CFQD® materials) and other patented nanomaterials for use in the electronics industries. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Runcorn, UK, Nanoco continues to build out a world-class, patent-protected IP portfolio alongside its existing scaled up production facilities for commercial orders.

Nanomaterials are materials with dimensions typically in the range 1 - 100 nm. Nanomaterials have a range of useful properties, including optical and electronic. Quantum dots are a subclass of nanomaterial that have size-dependent optical and electronic properties. Within the sphere of quantum dots, the Group exploits different characteristics of the quantum dots to target different performance criteria that are attractive to specific markets or end-user applications such as the Sensor, Electronics and Display markets. Nanoco's CFQD® quantum dots are free of cadmium and other toxic heavy metals, and can be tuned to emit light at different wavelengths across the visible and infrared spectrum, rendering them useful for a wide range of display applications. Nanoco's HEATWAVE® quantum dots can be tuned to absorb light at different wavelengths across the near-infrared spectra, rendering them useful for applications including cameras and image sensors.

Nanoco is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange, holds the LSE's Green Economy Mark, and trades under the ticker symbol NANO. For further information please visit: www.nanocotechnologies.com