SunPower's manufacturing spin-off Maxeon Solar Technologies has launched a new patent infringement lawsuit against Canada-headquartered manufacturer Canadian Solar. It has accused the latter of infringing Maxeon's patents related to TOPCon solar cell technology. The lawsuit has been filed in the Eastern District of Texas, US.
Maxeon's Associate General Counsel Marc Robinson says, "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."
Robinson adds, "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."
Philip Shen of Roth MKM cautions, "We believe this lawsuit could cause a disruption in the industry as many may not be fully aware of the strength of MAXN's TOPCon IP portfolio. We believe MAXN's TOPCon patents predate any other TOPCon technology."
Last year, Maxeon announced launching an investigation into several infringement cases of the company's TOPCon solar cell patents in the US. It said the manufacturer is actively monitoring the US market for the presence of potentially infringing products following reports of several companies announcing plans to import or manufacture TOPCon solar cells in the country.
Shen believes that if the accusations against Canadian Solar are proved, it could culminate into a settlement and/or licensing agreement. "This could also have a cascading effect on numerous module manufacturers looking to lock in licensing agreements with MAXN," he adds.
Maxeon says its innovations behind interdigitated back contact (IBC), shingled hypercell and TOPCon technologies are protected by a global patent portfolio of more than 1,650 granted patents and over 330 pending patent applications.
Interestingly, this patent lawsuit follows a previous lawsuit that Maxeon filed against the Canadian manufacturer regarding shingled solar cells. It ended with Canadian Solar agreeing to discontinue selling its shingled cell modules in Japan till Q2/2025 (see Maxeon Solar & Canadian Solar Reach Settlement).
Canadian Solar has not responded to the new lawsuit publicly as yet.
Maxeon also has an ongoing shingled cell patent infringement case against China's Tongwei Solar. In November 2023, the company accused China's Aiko Solar of infringing on its proprietary back contact solar cell architecture, dragging the latter's distributor Memodo in the lawsuit (see SunPower Spin-Off Launches Another Patent Lawsuit).
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