On October 8th, Trina Solar filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Atos Solar Power in the Delaware District Court, accusing Atos Solar Power of infringing on two patents related to TOPCon technology used in Trina Solar's solar panel manufacturing. The above two patents (No. 9722104 and No. 10230009) are the same as the patents that Trina Solar accuses Runergy of infringing.

Canadian Solar Power has now responded to patent infringement complaints and pledged to continue providing solar products to the United States and the world.

Canadian Solar respects and values its own and third-party intellectual property rights. We believe this is a boring lawsuit, and we hope the court will rule that our proprietary TOPCon technology does not infringe on the patents claimed by Trina Solar, "said Adam Walters, General Counsel for the Americas for Canadian Solar's Power Components and System Solutions business.

Earlier this month, Trina Solar escalated its lawsuit against Runergy, demanding that the US International Trade Commission complete an investigation under Section 337 of the 1930 Tariff Act, which would instruct US Customs to prevent infringing imported products from entering the United States. Tianhe Solar also listed Adani Green Energy as the infringing party. 337 Investigation Request.

Runergy responded by requesting the US Patent and Trademark Office to "cancel" these two patents, stating that they are "not patentable". Runergy stated that these two patents are not the result of Trina Solar's own efforts, but were purchased by Trina Solar in 2024. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Systems published detailed information on TOPCon solar cells in 2013, and the two patents obtained by Trina Solar were submitted within a year. Runergy stated that the technology could not be patented after Fraunhofer published the paper.

Suspected infringement of TOPCon patents has been a hot topic in the solar energy market this year. After Solaria sold its intellectual property portfolio last year, Maxeon acquired a batch of TOPCon patents from Solaria. Afterwards, Maxeon filed patent infringement complaints related to TOPCon technology against Atos Sunshine Power, REC, and Hanwha Qcells.

Although First Solar is a thin-film panel manufacturer, it also holds patents related to TOPCon technology. The company stated that it will begin investigating possible infringement this summer and file any necessary complaints.