On May 17, the official WeChat account of Aiko Shares announced that on May 16, the Hague District Court in the Netherlands released the judgment on the temporary injunction application initiated by Maxeon against Aiko Shares. The court ruled that Aiko's related products did not infringe the patents claimed by Maxeon and rejected Maxeon's request for a temporary injunction.
Maxeon, a veteran photovoltaic giant in Europe and America, has been waging "battles" everywhere. Recently, it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against several photovoltaic enterprises holding BC, tile-stacking, and TOPCon technologies, including leading companies such as Aiko Shares, Tongwei Shares, and Artes. The cases filed overseas have attracted industry attention. A senior photovoltaic industry practitioner told a reporter from China Securities Journal that behind the dispute over patent infringement lies market competition. Maxeon may intend to affect the market structure of its competitors by initiating patent litigation cases.
There is no infringement of the patents claimed by Maxeon
Public information shows that Maxeon is a global leader in high-end solar cell module manufacturing. It is a photovoltaic company spun off from SunPower, owning IBC cells and tile-stacking technology and patents from SunPower, as well as a global production and sales network, including headquarters and R&D centers in Singapore, cell factories in Malaysia and the Philippines, joint venture cell and component factories in China (20% equity in Huansheng Photovoltaics), and component factories in Mexico and France.
In November and December 2023, Maxeon filed patent infringement lawsuits against Aiko's related ABC products in a German district court for infringing its patent EP2297788B1 and also filed a temporary injunction application with the Hague District Court in the Netherlands. The Hague District Court primarily based its decision on test reports provided by two top European professional institutions, ruling that Aiko's related products did not infringe the patents claimed by Maxeon and rejecting Maxeon's request for a temporary injunction.
The company stated that the Dutch court's judgment is a strong support for Aiko's continuous commitment to ABC technology innovation.
In fact, this was not the first time Maxeon had "fired" at Aiko Shares. On the evening of December 14, 2023, Aiko Shares announced that its overseas subsidiaries Aiko Energy Germany GmbH and Solarlab Aiko Europe GmbH received documents from Maxeon filed in the Mannheim District Court in Germany alleging infringement of a European patent. Maxeon claimed that one of the ABC module products sold by Aiko Shares used its European patent No. EP2297788B1 without permission and demanded compensation of 500,000 euros.
Aiko Shares stated in the announcement that after receiving the lawsuit documents, the company re-verified the relevant evidence materials in the complaint and believed that its ABC product was fundamentally different from Maxeon Solar's EP2297788B1 patent technology and did not infringe the patent. Aiko will join forces with a professional legal team to actively respond to the lawsuit and assert its legitimate rights according to the law.
In June 2023, Maxeon filed a patent infringement lawsuit against another domestic photovoltaic cell enterprise in the Düsseldorf District Court in Germany, claiming a sum of 1 million euros. At that time, the cell enterprise responded that the current information could not indicate that its related products infringed Maxeon's European patents, and the impact on the company was limited.
Market Competition
A reporter from China Securities Journal learned from the industry that up to now, Maxeon has successively filed patent infringement lawsuits against several photovoltaic enterprises holding BC, tile-stacking, and TOPCon technologies, with domestic leading companies such as Aiko Shares, Tongwei Shares, and Artes being sued overseas.
A senior photovoltaic industry practitioner told reporters that behind the dispute over patent infringement lies market competition. Maxeon may intend to affect the market structure of its competitors by initiating patent litigation cases. Maxeon has publicly stated that its IBC, tile-stacking, and TOPCon technologies are protected by a global patent portfolio, including more than 1,650 granted patents and over 330 pending patent applications.
Recently, Maxeon also filed a patent infringement lawsuit against international photovoltaic giant REC Solar in the Eastern District of Texas, claiming that it infringed patents related to TOPCon. In March of this year, Maxeon also filed a TOPCon patent lawsuit against Artes.
Europe is an important market for the global photovoltaic industry. Currently, Aiko Shares' ABC modules have won the favor of many European partners. On May 17, a business person in charge at Aiko Shares told reporters that Aiko Shares currently has more than 10GW of ABC modules in hand orders, a significant portion of which are from Europe.
As an innovative new energy technology enterprise, Aiko Shares attaches great importance to independent innovation and intellectual property protection. Since its establishment, it has always focused on improving photoelectric conversion efficiency to build its core competitiveness. Through disruptive inventions such as P-type bifacial PERC technology, 210mm large-size cell technology, N-type ABC technology, and N-type BC module bifacial technology, it has led the new technological direction of the photovoltaic industry and contributed to the progress of the photovoltaic industry.
On May 6, Chen Gang, the chairman of Aiko Shares, stated that this year Aiko's average cell mass production efficiency should reach 27.5%, and it is expected that Aiko's average module mass production efficiency will reach 24.8%-25% by the third quarter of this year.
AUTHOR: China Securities Journal
LINK: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/udVvYCZgr0RyTtb7y50rmg