Canadian Solar Comments on ITC Complaint Filed by Solaria

China-based solar module manufacturer Canadian Solar has responded to the new ITC complaint filed by the Solaria Corporation.

The company has stated that:

Over the past five months, Canadian Solar has been vigorously litigating a patent lawsuit filed by Solaria in April 2020 in the US District Court in Oakland, California, entitled The Solaria Corporation v. Canadian Solar Inc., Case No. 4:20-cv-02169-JST (N.D. Cal.). Canadian Solar countersued with claims requesting that the Court declare, as Canadian Solar believes, that:

(1) none of the products at issue in the case infringe the Solaria patents;

(2) Solaria withheld key evidence from the US Patent Office when seeking its patents; and

(3) this, among other reasons, renders the asserted claims both invalid and unenforceable.

In the face of Canadian Solar’s countersuit, Solaria opted to file a new lawsuit with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), entitled Certain Shingled Solar Modules, Components Thereof, and Methods for Manufacturing the Same, Section 337 Investigation Docket No. 3491. The ITC investigation is expected to be instituted next month.

The company stated that “asserting the same family of patents against the same limited number of products (HiDM and HiDM5) in a different forum does not make Solaria’s claims any less flawed. Canadian Solar will continue to vigorously defend these lawsuits, while the Company continues to focus its energy on developing superior products and bringing innovation to the market.”

Last week, Solar had announced that it had filed additional claims against Canadian Solar with the International Trade Commission (ITC).

“Solaria has over 250 patents and has invested more than USD 200 million in developing our advanced solar panel technology,” Solaria Founder and Director Suvi Sharma had said. “Despite our pending District Court case, Canadian Solar continues to wilfully misappropriate Solaria’s intellectual property. It’s unfair that an infringing company can swoop in, as Canadian Solar has done here, use our patented inventions, and threaten American jobs. We filed the ITC complaint because Canadian Solar deems itself above the law, and its anti-competitive behaviour must be remedied.”

According to Solaria’s complaint, Canadian Solar’s “HiDM” shingled modules infringe Solaria’s U.S. patents that cover tiled or so-called “shingled” solar modules, as well as Solaria’s patented process for separating photovoltaic (PV) strips from solar cells for use in such modules. Solaria asserts that it introduced its high-efficiency, high-density module (HDM) technology to Canadian Solar when representatives of Canadian Solar evaluated Solaria’s next-generation shingling technology for a potential licensing deal. Shortly thereafter, Canadian Solar launched its HiDM shingled modules and began advertising and selling them in the United States. Solaria is seeking an exclusion order that would prevent Canadian Solar from importing infringing products into the US.