In a David-and-Goliath legal dispute Tesla (TSLA) has had its lawsuit against former supplier Matthews International (MATW) thrown out again, in another victory for the 175-year-old industrial supplier against Elon Musk’s auto giant.
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A U.S. District Court Judge has issued an order denying Tesla’s request to block MATW’s right to sell its dry battery electrode (DBE) technology, the innovation at the heart of the litigation.
TSLA Accuses MATW
TSLA launched a $1 billion lawsuit against MATW in June last year, accusing the company of breaching a confidentiality agreement, selling Tesla’s trade secrets and attempting to patent confidential information related to electric vehicle batteries.
But on February 6th Matthews announced a favorable ruling in arbitration against Tesla, which reaffirmed the company’s right to sell its proprietary DBE tech to customers around the world. Since then, however, Tesla filed two additional legal attacks in the United Stated District Court for the Northern District of California.
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila issued an order denying Tesla’s request for a temporary restraining order attempting to block Matthews’ right to sell its DBE products. But Tesla followed up by filing another lawsuit in Federal Court against Matthews.
TSLA Claims are “Meritless”
Tesla’s complaints are “meritless” and a “bullying tactic,” Matthews said in a statement on Monday. “Matthews will vigorously defend this additional lawsuit while pursuing in parallel claims against Tesla for its wrongful conduct,” the company said.
According to MATW, it was developing DBE technology before Tesla even existed. “It is Matthews’ extensive research and development in this area that led to U.S. Patent No. 12,136,727 – not Tesla’s, “ the company said, referring to a patent granted in November last year.
Founded in 1850 by John Dixon Matthews, the company was known for its memorials, cremation and funeral offerings before it branched out into engineering, energy, automation and other industrial technology businesses.
Is TSLA a Buy?
Overall, Wall Street has a Hold consensus rating on TSLA, based on 13 Buys, 12 Holds and 10 Sells from the 35 Wall Street analysts offering 12-month price targets for Tesla in the last three months. The average TSLA price target of $340.50 implies about 4% downside from current levels.
