Singapore-based solar module manufacturer Maxeon has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Chinese-Canadian competitor Canadian Solar in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
The alleged patent infringement is related to an unspecified TOPCon solar cell technology.
“Maxeon has a strong heritage in developing solar cell technology, leading the development and commercialization of tunnel oxide passivated contacts,” said Marc Robinson, associate general counsel for Maxeon. “Years before the moniker ‘TOPCon’ started to be used in the industry to describe a tunnel oxide passivated contact-based solar cell, our scientists and engineers had developed several ways to implement TOPCon technology into both back contact and front contact solar cells. Maxeon has many patents related to TOPCon technology, with inventions drawn to fundamental TOPCon solar cell architectures dating back to the 2000s. This is Maxeon’s first action to enforce its valuable patent rights in the United States, and Maxeon will continue to vigorously enforce its patent rights in the United States and its other markets.”
Maxeon previously sued Canadian Solar in Japan for patent infringement in 2020. In the lawsuit, Maxeon alleged that Canadian Solar Japan infringed upon its Japan Patent No. JP6642841B2, which is related to its shingled solar modules. The two companies reached a settlement agreement in April 2022.
Canadian Solar has faced similar patent claims in the United States. PV manufacturer Solaria filed three different patent infringement claims against the company, also related to the process of separating photovoltaic strips from solar cells for use in shingled modules.
In November 2023, Maxeon sued Chinese competitor Aiko Solar Energy, as well as wholesaler Memedo GmbH, for alleged patent infringement regarding a specific design related to the architecture of back contact solar cells.
And in June 2023, Maxeon had filed a lawsuit against Tongwei Solar in Germany for the alleged infringement of its European patent for shingled solar cell technology.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.