Recently, the State Intellectual Property Office issued a document to review the invalidation request filed by Tongwei Solar (Hefei) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tongwei Solar") against two patents of Maxeon Solar Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Maxeon"), and decided to maintain the validity of Maxeon's patent rights.

The above two patent numbers are ZL201680000981.7 and ZL201910999866.0 respectively, and the names are "solar panels".

The application for invalidation was filed by TW Solar on March 4 this year, and after the collegial panel examined and approved, TW Solar's invalidation grounds were not established. However, the Decision on Examination of the Request for Invalidation also provides that if a party is dissatisfied with this decision, it may file a lawsuit with the Beijing Intellectual Property Court within three months from the date of receipt of the decision in accordance with Article 46, Paragraph 2 of the Patent Law. According to that paragraph, after one party files a lawsuit, the other party participates in the proceedings as a third party.

TW Solar is a subsidiary of TW (600438. SH) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, which is mainly engaged in module production and operation. On October 17, Times Finance called the securities department of Tongwei as an investor, and the relevant staff said that the lawsuit with Maxeon has not yet ended. The shingling technology accounts for a relatively small share of the module market, and the company's shipments are not large, so the event has little impact on the company.

In June last year, Maxeon filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Germany Court against Tongwei Solar and its subsidiary, Tongwei Solar GmbH, alleging that it had used Maxeon's patent under European patent number No. EP3522045 B1 ("shingled solar modules") without permission.

At that time, the official WeChat public account of Tongwei Co., Ltd. said that the current information could not show that the company's related products infringed the European patent of Maxeon, and the company had hired a local lawyer in Germany to actively respond to the lawsuit and claim its legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law. "The amount of this lawsuit is 1 million euros, accounting for about 0.0128% of the company's latest audited net assets, and does not have a material impact on the company."

In addition to the patent defense battle with Tongwei, in 2020, Maxeon also filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Canadian Solar's wholly-owned subsidiary, Canadian Solar Japan (Canadian Solar Japan K.K.), over the patent of shingled solar modules, and demanded compensation of 10 million yen, after which the two parties reached a settlement.

In 2023, Maxeon also filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Aiko Co., Ltd. (600732.SH), its subsidiaries Aiko Energy Germany GmbH, Solarlab Aiko Europe GmbH and its distributor Memodo GmbH in Germany, claiming a claim of 500,000 euros. Aiko has filed a reply with the local court in Germany in March 2024, requesting the court to reject Maxeon's claim and have Maxeon bear the litigation costs. As of August this year, the lawsuit had not yet entered the oral proceedings.

In response to Maxeon's application for a sales injunction to the Netherlands court, the Netherlands District Court ruled in May this year that Aiko's related products did not infringe the patent claimed by Maxeon, and rejected Maxeon's application for a temporary injunction. In June, Maxeon also filed a lawsuit against three European subsidiaries and five European customers of Aiko in the Düsseldorf District Court of the European Unified Patent Court.

In addition to Maxeon, the smoke of the photovoltaic patent war has long been permeated in the industry.

Since the beginning of this year, Trina Solar (688599. SH) and Runyang, JA Solar (002459. SZ) and Chint New Energy both went to court over patent disputes. Under the "war", photovoltaic equipment manufacturers were not spared, and Otway (688516. SH) also filed patent infringement lawsuits against CECEP Solar Technology (Zhenjiang) Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Guangyuan Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd.

In July this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) publicly solicited opinions on the standard conditions and announcement management measures for the photovoltaic manufacturing industry (draft for comments), and the main revisions included strengthening quality management and intellectual property protection.

In this regard, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also said that the industry calls for strengthening industry self-discipline and reducing industry involution at the same time, it is also necessary to give priority to supporting enterprises with technology, brands and their own intellectual property rights at the macro industry management policy level, guide and avoid low-level blind expansion, and optimize the development environment of the photovoltaic industry, including strengthening intellectual property protection, unifying relevant standards, and improving product quality.