Buffet's Battery Bunny Breaks Bad in Trade Secret Betrayal—Lawsuit, Incoming…

Bunnies Gone Wild… 

Duracell, the battery brand owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is being accused of straight-up ripping off trade secrets from German chemical giant BASF. And not in the classic “we might’ve borrowed some ideas” Mark Zuckerburg kind of way. BASF is alleging a full-blown, corporate screwjob—claiming Duracell took confidential lithium-ion battery tech during a so-called “collaboration,” then handed it off to a third party and cut BASF out of the picture entirely.

(Source: Giphy) 

The suit, unsealed in Delaware, claims that BASF developed a proprietary, cost-efficient process for manufacturing high-performance cathode material—basically the stuff inside lithium-ion batteries that makes them not suck. BASF says it poured years of R&D into this, only to have Duracell allegedly turn around and leverage that tech without permission. Now BASF wants damages, and they want all traces of that info destroyed. 

Duracell, naturally, is calling BS. Even if they did do it, they aren’t going to admit it without a pretty expensive legal fight. And it depicts a perfect description of where the battery industry is right now: feral. Everyone is trying to stake out a position in what is arguably the most important supply chain of the next two decades. EVs, consumer electronics, grid storage—everything runs on lithium-ion, and whoever controls the tech behind it prints money. 

(Source: Investing.com) 

And not surprisingly, Duracell, traditionally the king of AA batteries and “does this go in the plus or minus side?” consumer products clearly wants a piece of the lithium-ion future. However, BASF, currently overhauling its entire business to focus more on battery materials (while slashing billions in costs because Europe’s industrial base is falling apart), isn’t about to let that go without a fight. 

Now only time will tell how this verdict will go. BASF is saying one thing, while Duracell is saying another, but the more interesting part about this is Duracell is one of Warren’s babies. We all know the guy loves boring, cash-generating businesses, and until now, Duracell has fit that mold since the time he bought it in 2016. But now it’s knee-deep in a lawsuit over high-stakes battery IP, which is not exactly the quiet, no-headlines kind of investment Warren usually leans into. Meaning, either Duracell got sloppy, or BASF is weaponizing the legal system because its own battery pivot is stalling out. Maybe both.

(Source: Giphy) 

The truth probably lives in the grey area, where some NDA got ignored, some R&D lines got blurred, and now we’re here. Of course, until we see the fine print of the lawsuit, it’s all up in the air, but for now, keep your eyes on this story and place your bets accordingly. Until next time, friends… 

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Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.