French PV producer Carbon has offered an replace on the patent case associated to JA Solar’s TOPCon patents EP 2 787 541 B1.
The firm defined that it led a consortium together with different unspecified European members that submitted a patent opposition to query the validity of JA Solar’s patent on the European Patent Office (EPO).
“The lawsuit filed by JAsolar towards Astronergy / Chint on the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is totally unrelated to the EPO patent opposition, involving Carbon,” Étienne Roche, chargeable for technique, communication, relations public and public affairs in Carbon. , stated pv journal.
“There is not any connection between Carbon and the authorized proceedings between JAsolar and Astronergy/Chint, and there’s no lawsuit from JA Solar towards Carbon and the consortium of European companions.”
Roche stated Carbon started working a full Freedom To Operate (FTO) on TOPCon expertise in 2022, when it begins operations.
“At that point, Carbon acknowledged a TOPCon patent, which could be very broad, from LG, Korea and owned by Jinkosolar. A number of months in the past, JA Solar purchased the patent portfolio from Jinkosolar,” he added. “TOPCon is a expertise invented and developed in European labs and we should keep in mind that it is rather broad, shared, and gives totally different potential technological paths.”
“In 2022, when Carbon selected TOPCon as the primary technological path for its industrial PV mission, the corporate was a little bit of a visionary, as a result of TOPCon was not but the mainstream expertise it might be,” stated stated Roche. “The broad patent we recognized in 2022 has simply been granted by the EPO and we nonetheless have a nine-month interval by which it’s potential to make a easy opposition.”
Roche added that the patent opposition towards JA Solar’s patent was filed in May 2023, however famous that this motion is just not a lawsuit or a authorized trial.
“In October 2024, the reply of the Opposition Division was that the patent ‘raised,’ however it was solely a preliminary resolution,” he added. “Our consortium is at present exploring the potential of an enchantment, with a number of European gamers concerned.”
Carbon stated it might enhance its expertise technique following the end result of the patent opposition.
“In normal, Carbon won’t decrease the vigilance of those IP issues, as a result of what’s at stake for Europe is our strategic autonomy, technological independence, and industrial sovereignty,” Roche emphasised. “As European gamers, we must always not cease defending applied sciences developed in Europe by Europeans. This can also be a strategy to assist the transformation of the European PV business.”
In our earlier report, Astronergy first talked about Carbon as an organization concerned within the patent opposition case and in addition specified that the case is just not associated to a different dispute TOPCon has with JA Solar.
“Astronergy is concerned as a result of, in August of this yr, JA Solar made Astronergy a associated celebration within the Carbon Dispute Case,” an organization spokesperson advised pv journal yesterday. “The EPO’s details about the end result of the oral proceedings is a preliminary opinion, not a conclusion.”
When JA Solar stated that Astronergy was concerned within the opposition case, it first excluded that Carbon was a part of the proceedings, however it then confirmed to pv journal that the corporate was concerned.