Mondragon Assembly wins patent litigation case in China

From pv magazine Spain

Mondragon Assembly has revealed that it has won a new dispute with an undisclosed Chinese manufacturer over its patent for continuous string technology.

The Spanish PV production equipment supplier said the patented continuous string process makes cuts between two cells to create individual strings from single infinite strings.

“The patent has been valid since 2013,” a company spokesperson told pv magazine.

Mondragon Assembly said the process increases machine productivity by around 10%, allowing the ribbon/wire to be kept under control at all times. It claimed that the process also increases the quality of the alignment, while reducing the number of defective strings.

Several years ago, Mondragon Assembly faced another legal dispute with a solar machinery manufacturer, but the Chinese court ruled in the Spanish company's favor.

“Mondragon Assembly has taken legal action against two Chinese competitors who infringed said patent,” the company said. “In both cases, the Chinese courts have ruled in favor of Mondragon Assembly and the offenders have been sentenced to cease the manufacture and sale of continuous string machines and to pay compensation to it.”