Lotte Healthcare sued for allegedly stealing Algocare’s technology idea

Lotte Healthcare is facing legal issues after it was accused of stealing the technology idea of Algocare, a Korean startup. Their dispute started during the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that was held earlier this month in Las Vegas.

Pickool reported that Lotte Healthcare and Algocare participated in the said tech show, and both exhibited their own pill dispensing machines. After the event, it was reported that the local Ministry of SMEs and Startups sent a technology theft investigator to Algocare.

The ministry also sent a lawyer as soon as it learned about Lotte Healthcare’s alleged theft of Algocare’s pill dispenser technology. The officials made a move because Algocare was previously given an innovation award for the said product, which has yet to be launched in March.

Based on the reports, the chief executive officer of Algocare, Joung Ji Won, said that Lotte Healthcare may have used information shared during meetings between the two companies regarding the development of their product. The conferences took place from September to October 2021; however, they later decided not to team up after the meetings.

Joung also provided specifications of Algocare and Lotte Healthcare’s products in addition to voice recordings of her own phone conversations with the latter’s executive general manager. These items are set to be used as evidence of the suspected technology theft.

Algocare proceeded to sue Lotte Healthcare for an alleged breach of the Fair Trade Act and the Unfair Competition Prevention Act. in response, Lotte Group’s healthcare unit denied all the claims and explained that its Fillkey product is a smart pill dispenser that functions with a different mechanism thus technology theft did not occur.

“After the investment discussion with Algocare broke down, we decided to manufacture our own dispenser that fits the business direction, and the dispenser and cartridge were manufactured by referring to the automatic tablet sorting and packaging system machine used in commercial pharmacies,” Korea Biomed quoted Lotte Healthcare as saying in a statement.

The company added, “While Algocare dispenses the nutrition pills by inserting memory chips containing product information into cartridges, Lotte Healthcare uses RFID stickers, which are commonly used in the distribution industry, to recognize nutritional information in cartridges.”