Chinese solar panel manufacturer Runergy said it has asked the USPTO to revoke patents US9,722,104 and US10,230,009, owned by rival Chinese manufacturer Trina Solar.
Runergy claims that two patents are unpatentable because they are not the result of Trina Solar’s own work.
“The patents were not purchased from others by Trina Solar until February 2024,” Runergy said in a statement. “As early as 2013, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy had already published and described the creation of TOPCon solar cells, following tenets published even earlier in the 1980s… The two patents acquired by Trina Solar were not released for more than a year submitted after the Fraunhofer Institute. Publication from 2013. Thus, they could not be patentable for attempts to cover TOPCon solar cells with only obvious variations already known in the prior art.”
Early October Trina Solar has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging that Runergy and India-based Adani Green Energy have unlawfully imported and sold projects that infringe on TOPCon solar cell patents.
Trina Solar’s complaint requested that the ITC issue a limited exclusion order and a cease and desist order against Runergy and Adani to prohibit the importation into the United States of certain solar cells, modules, panels, parts thereof, and products containing them that infringe to prohibit legislation. Trina’s patents.
Trina Solar also has separate patent infringement lawsuits related to TOPCon technology pending against Runergy in the District of Delaware and the Central District of California.
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