SK hynix, PRF ask court to protect some details from going public in lawsuits over $3.87B site in West Lafayette
South Korean company, PRF, city say in filing that trade secrets, chemical lists, other proprietary info is being shared inappropriately ahead of trial. Atty says: ‘The public has a right to know.'
Thanks for ongoing support from Based in Lafayette sponsor Long Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Lafayette. For tickets and details on all the shows and events, go to longpac.org.
SK HYNIX, PURDUE RESEARCH FOUNDATION ASK COURT TO PROTECT SOME DETAILS FROM GOING PUBLIC IN LAWSUITS OVER $3.87 BILLION FACILITY’S SITE IN WEST LAFAYETTE
In an ongoing lawsuit that revolves around whether West Lafayette officials adequately took into consideration environmental and industrial impacts before rezoning land for a $3.87 billion semiconductor facility being built north of Kalberer Road, attorneys for SK hynix, Purdue Research Foundation and the city on Friday asked a judge to shield some documents leading up to the trial to protect what they contend are trade secrets of the South Korean and private details of PRF’s land negotiations.
Specifically, the motion asking for a protective order during the evidence discovery phase leading up to a Dec. 1 bench trial calls out the attorney for Lora Williams – a West Lafayette resident who is behind one of two lawsuits attempting to overturn a 2025 rezoning decision and to stop construction – for publishing sensitive materials gathered in the case for all to see.
In a filing posted Friday in Tippecanoe Circuit Court, attorneys for SK hynix, the city and PRF argued that Williams’ attorney, her brother Tom Williams, was essentially slowing the evidence-sharing process by going public via court filing with documents he’s received. They called for the court to set and enforce rules on evidence marked confidential when it comes to trade secrets or commercially sensitive business information – the way it might be in one of the state’s commercial courts.
The three already have spent much of the past year, since the cases were filed in June 2025, looking to set parameters in attempts to limit a wide-range of requests for documents, contracts and proposed depositions the plaintiffs have made for SK hynix, the city council and a handful of third parties not directly named in the lawsuits, including Purdue officials.
“(We) raised the issue that Williams had previously filed all discovery responses on the court’s docket making them publicly available and inquired whether Williams intended to publish all discovery responses on the internet again,” SK hynix, PRF and the city wrote in Friday’s motion. “Williams’ counsel would not commit to not doing so.”
Reached over the weekend, Tom Williams declined to comment on the new filing, saying he’d respond in court.
But in a letter refenced in Friday’s filing, Tom Williams suggested more targeted redactions rather than any sort of “blanket order,” saying SK hynix, the city and PRF had the burden to show why something shouldn’t be public. He argued that any information SK hynix has already shared with government officials or other third parties “is not a trade secret.” He told the defendants that information he sought eventually would be public, anyway, in various state and federal permit reviews.
In a July 30 letter referenced in Friday’s court filing, Williams wrote: “This is in part a public-safety case, and the public has a right to know.”
“This litigation concerns the rezoning of land in the middle of residential neighborhoods to the heaviest industrial classification, and what hazardous substances will be stored and released there,” Tom Williams wrote in that letter, included in Friday’s court filing.
“The new zoning category ‘I3’ is defined in the Uniform Zoning Ordinance as ‘heavy in impact,’” Williams wrote to attorneys for SK hynix, PRF and the city. “So, the public has a right to information about what that impact will be and who will be impacted. The information sought by Petitioner Williams through discovery for her justiciable claims is relevant and bears directly on this.”
