After JinkoSolar dragged LONGi to court accusing it of patent infringement, the latter is fighting back with counter lawsuits in the US and now in China. (Photo Credit: LONGi) 
Business

LONGi Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against JinkoSolar

Chinese court accepts petition that seeks JinkoSolar to stop using LONGi’s TOPCon patents

Anu Bhambhani

  • LONGi Green Energy Technology has reportedly filed a patent infringement lawsuit against JinkoSolar 

  • It has filed this counter lawsuit accusing JinkoSolar of infringing on its TOPCon patents 

  • The Chinese court in Shandong is set to hear LONGi’s petition on March 20, 2025 

The war of the titans of the Chinese solar PV industry has extended further as LONGi Green Energy Technology has filed a counter lawsuit against JinkoSolar in the Intermediate People’s Court of Jinan, Shandong in China.  

According to local media reports, the case has been accepted by the Shandong court and will come up for hearing on March 20, 2025. LONGi previously filed a counterclaim against JinkoSolar in the US on January 21, 2025.  

Its lawsuit is against the use of LONGi’s TOPCon patents whose manufacture and sale it wants JinkoSolar to cease.

LONGi is fighting back with a counter lawsuit after JinkoSolar launched patent infringement proceedings against the company and its subsidiaries in China, Japan, and very recently in Australia. Local Chinese media cites sources to claim that JinkoSolar is suing LONGi with regard to the latter purchasing multiple patent packages from South Korea’s LG.

The Australian Federal Court will take up JinkoSolar’s lawsuit on February 21, 2025 (see JinkoSolar Launches Patent Lawsuit Against LONGi In Australia). 

In terms of solar cell technology, while JinkoSolar remains committed to TOPCon, LONGi’s focus is on back contact architecture where it is promoting the company’s proprietary Hybrid Passivated Back Contact (HPBC) technology. 

Speaking at the TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Technologies 2024 Conference in December last year, LONGi’s Product Marketing Manager Dante Zeng said it is now inching closer to achieving the theoretical limit of 29.4% cell efficiency in mass production for the HPBC 2.0 generation (see LONGi’s HPBC Inching Closer To 29.4% Theoretical Cell Efficiency Limit). 

In related news, Trinasolar is suing Canadian Solar for damages exceeding RMB 1,058 billion in a Chinese court for the unlawful use of 2 specific patents (see Trinasolar Seeking RMB 1 Billion+ In Damages From Canadian Solar).