The headquarters of the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, United States
Image: Coolcaesar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Chinese-Canadian PV manufacturer Canadian Solar has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued final written decisions invalidating all claims of two TOPCon solar cell patents previously filed by the China-based competitor. Trina Solar.
“This ruling reinforces Canadian Solar’s long-standing, successful track record in international dispute management,” the company said in a statement. “As a global leader in innovation in solar energy and energy storage technology, the company has always prioritized biological R&D and has established a comprehensive and effective system for managing, commercializing and defending its global IP rights, covering all key aspects of the industry value chain.”
Trina Solar had filed a patent infringement complaint in October 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware against three unspecified units of Canadian Solar.
In February 2025, Trina Solar also initiated legal action in China against Canadian Solar and its subsidiary, Changshu Canadian Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd., for allegedly infringing two of its TOPCon solar cell technology patents. This lawsuit, filed in the Jiangsu High People’s Court, sought $147 million in damages.
According to Trina Solar’s announcement on February 10, the dispute in China focuses on two patents: Patent No. ZL201710975923.2, entitled ‘Solar Cell Module’, and Patent No. ZL201510892086.8, entitled ‘Solar Cell and Its Manufacturing Method’.
Canadian Solar has recently faced similar patent claims in the United States. In March 2024, Singapore-based Maxeon filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the company in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.. Maxeon previously sued Canadian Solar in Japan for patent infringement in 2020. In the lawsuit, Maxeon alleged that Canadian Solar Japan infringed Japanese patent No. JP6642841B2, which is related to its shingled solar modules. The two companies reached a settlement in April 2022.
Additionally, PV manufacturer Solaria has filed three different patent infringement claims against Canadian Solar in the past, all related to the process of separating photovoltaic strips from solar cells for use in shingles.
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