Chinese solar module maker Runergy said it has asked the USPTO to cancel the patents US9,722,104 and US10,230,009, which are held by rival Chinese manufacturer Trina Solar.
Runergy claims that two patents are not patentable, as they are not the result of Trina Solar's own work.
“The patents were only purchased by Trina Solar from others in February 2024,” Runergy said in a statement. “As early as 2013, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy had already published and described the making of TOPCon solar cells, following teachings published even earlier in the 1980s … The two Trina Solar acquired patents were not filed until more than a year after the Fraunhofer Institute 2013 publication. They thus could not be patentable for attempting to cover TOPCon solar cell with only obvious variations already known in the prior art.”
In early October, Trina Solar filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging that Runergy and India-based Adani Green Energy improperly imported and sold projects that infringe on its patents for TOPCon solar cells.
Trina Solar’s complaint requested that the ITC issue a limited exclusion order and cease-and-desist orders against Runergy and Adani to bar the importation into the United States of certain solar cells, modules, panels, components thereof, and products containing the same that infringe Trina’s patents.
Trina Solar also has separate patent infringement suits relating to TOPCon technology pending against Runergy in the District of Delaware and the Central District of California.
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