Maxeon Solar has initiated a patent infringement lawsuit against Canadian Solar alleging infringement of Maxeon’s TOPCon patents. Maxeon filed in the Eastern District of Texas.
Canadian Solar TOPCon module
After buying Solaria’s shingled-cell technology patents last year, Maxeon now holds over 1,650 granted patents and over 330 pending patent applications related to interdigitated back contact (IBC), shingled hypercell and tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar technology. The company announced last year that it was investigating several companies for infringement of Maxeon’s patents. This claim against Canadian Solar is the first to be announced.
“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 at 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 is alleging infringement on three patents: Nos. 8,222,516 (the ’516 patent), 8,878,053 (the ’053 patent), and 11,251,315 (the ’315 patent).
- ‘516 patent: Front Contact Solar Cell with Formed Emitter (granted in 2012 to SunPower)
- ‘053 patent: Front Contact Solar Cell with Formed Emitter (granted in 2014 to SunPower)
- ‘315 patent: Solar Cells with Improved Lifetime, Passivation and/or Efficiency (granted in 2022 to SunPower)
- SunPower assigned its patents to Maxeon in 2022.
Canadian Solar released a comment:
Although Canadian Solar is continuing to consult its lawyers and study Maxeon’s complaint, the company’s preliminary assessment is that the claims in the complaint are entirely without merit. Canadian Solar denies that its TOPCon technology infringes on Maxeon’s patents and intends to vigorously defend itself against Maxeon’s claims. Canadian Solar is confident that its TOPCon technology and processes will be vindicated in court at the appropriate time. Meanwhile, Canadian Solar will continue to sell high quality solar products in the United States and elsewhere, as it has done since its founding in Canada more than 20 years ago.Canadian Solar
Solaria filed a patent infringement suit against Canadian Solar in 2020, alleging Canadian Solar stole Solaria’s patents for shingled solar modules. The International Trade Commission found that Canadian Solar did infringe on Solaria’s patents, and the two companies ultimately agreed that Canadian Solar would not sell solar panels using shingled technology in the United States for seven years.
Updated March 28 to add Canadian Solar’s comment.
Excellent work Ms. PICKEREL, especially when comparing those reports from the GURUs who in June gave a target price of $40 for MAXEON and today instead downgrade it (without a hint of shame) with a target price of $3. Surely MAXEON SOLAR is under attack by larger companies who want to appropriate its patents. And the financial gurus of banks and financial institutions send the market signals that are completely at odds with reality! Unfortunately, MAXEON SOLAR has the genetic defect of not being American, and is therefore hated by American institutions who would like to make it part of the US companies. Maybe with the help of bad results (caused by the former parent company SUNPOWER, this one is American) the hired GURUs (whose reports can easily be found) manage to convince investors that MAXEON SOLAR is the worst of the companies that produce photovoltaic panels, while in fact it is absolutely the best, as emerges from the tests that reveal how powerful the panels produced by the company born (unfortunately) in SINGAPORE in 2019 are.