Huawei, SolarEdge settle patent litigation lawsuits

Inverter manufacturers Huawei and SolarEdge said in a joint statement that they have signed a global patent license agreement that allows them to use their respective patented technologies.

“The agreement includes a cross license that covers patents relating to both companies’ products, and grants certain other rights,” they said. “In addition, the agreement will result in a settlement of all pending patent-litigation between the companies.”

The companies did not disclose any additional details about the settlement. “This agreement ends lawsuits between the companies that were pending in Germany and China,” they said.

Huawei initiated several lawsuits against SolarEdge in China, with the Chinese manufacturer claiming its competitor infringed on one of its patents for inverter products manufactured and exported by its Jabil Circuit (Guangzhou) Ltd. unit, along with two other subsidiaries in China. SolarEdge also filed three lawsuits against Huawei in the regional courts of Jinan and Shenzhen.

In Germany, Huawei had lodged a lawsuit against Israel-based SolarEdge in relation to multi-level inverter topology, which led to the revocation of the validity of SolarEdge’s patent. SolarEdge filed the first of the lawsuits, which relates to its DC-optimized inverter technology, in a court in Mannheim, Germany, in June 2019. A second case, which consists of two additional proceedings in the same court, alleges that Huawei infringed upon two other SolarEdge patents.