First Solar has filed a patent infringement claim against JinkoSolar, related to a TOPCon patent that First Solar owns due to a company acquisition from 12 years ago. First Solar filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
First Solar owns U.S. patent No. 9,130,074, which covers manufacturing methods for TOPCon silicon solar cells. First Solar, a thin-film solar panel manufacturer, obtained the silicon patent through its 2013 acquisition of TetraSun. The patent is valid through at least 2030.
“We’ve been clear that we will actively defend our intellectual property rights in the U.S. and internationally. Unfortunately, our interaction with JinkoSolar has been unproductive and left us with no choice but to enforce our patent rights through legal action,” said Jason Dymbort, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, of First Solar. “Given the responses we received from other solar cell manufacturers in connection with our infringement investigations, we believe we have a strong TOPCon technology patent portfolio. We expect that our lawsuit against JinkoSolar will reiterate the need for TOPCon solar cell manufacturers to operate within the well-defined framework of intellectual property law.”
Solar panel manufacturers are currently in a tangle of TOPCon patent battles, with most of the major players either suing or being sued. This is the first patent claim made by First Solar, although the company has alluded to more instances coming.
Jinko released a statement: “We are aware of the claims made by First Solar, and we are confident that when we present the facts in court it will be clear that their case has no merit. JinkoSolar is proud of its market-leading IP portfolio, which includes 462 patents related to n-type TOPCon technologies, and the company will vigorously defend itself against baseless claims.”
Story updated Feb. 27 to include Jinko’s statement.
