China’s Astronergy and JA Solar have agreed to terminate all ongoing global patent litigation and enter a wide-ranging cross-licensing arrangement covering TOPCon solar cell technology, bringing an end to one of the sector’s most closely watched intellectual-property battles.
The companies announced the settlement in a joint statement in the early hours of Nov. 29, saying all court actions in Europe and elsewhere would be withdrawn immediately and both sides would license their respective TOPCon patents to each other. They also committed to refraining from future litigation involving the same patent families.
The conflict began in July 2024, when JA Solar sued Astronergy and its European subsidiaries before two divisions of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in Munich and Hamburg, alleging infringement of two key TOPCon-related European patents originally developed by LG Electronics and later acquired by JA Solar.
The filings targeted EP2787541, a fundamental TOPCon cell-structure patent, and EP4092759, covering aspects of module interconnection. Astronergy immediately contested both patents’ validity at the European Patent Office (EPO), arguing lack of novelty, added subject matter and over-broad claims.
In October 2025, the EPO revoked EP4092759 in full after finding added-matter violations, a significant setback for JA Solar. The remaining patent, EP2787541, survived an earlier oral hearing but continued to face ongoing challenges over inventive step. The legal uncertainty, coupled with high litigation costs, set the stage for a negotiated settlement.
The agreement marks the second major IP détente between leading Chinese PV manufacturers in three months. In September, Longi and JinkoSolar reached a sweeping global peace deal of their own, ending a broad series of lawsuits and granting mutual access to key technologies.
The series of settlements reflects a change in strategy across China’s solar sector. After a prolonged price war, manufacturers entered 2024–25 with overcapacity, shrinking margins and a rising number of infringement suits, particularly around TOPCon, the world’s dominant cell architecture. Companies have increasingly concluded that cooperation, rather than litigation, is necessary to preserve cash, accelerate product development and secure market access in Europe and the United States.
Industry analysts say the Astronergy–JA Solar settlement will remove a major source of uncertainty for customers in Europe, where the UPC’s ability to impose EU-wide injunctions heightened commercial risk. TOPCon products now account for more than 70% of new solar capacity globally, and constraints linked to IP could have slowed the transition to more efficient N-type technologies.
Cross-licensing is also expected to reduce the need for parallel research-and-development workarounds, allowing firms to redeploy capital toward next-generation architectures, including hybrid TOPCon–BC designs and perovskite-silicon tandems.
JA Solar said the resolution “demonstrates a commitment to innovation and mutual benefit, setting a model for responsible IP governance,” he said. Astronergy did not provide detailed public comment but emphasized its continued investment in N-type research and development and its intention to “deliver greater value for customers,” he said.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.