According to foreign media reports, in July this year, the Appeal Board of the European Patent Office (EPO) revoked all the claims of the European patent EP2220689 of Hanwha Solutions, a Korean photovoltaic company, on the grounds of "lack of creativity". Before the revocation ruling, the patent was scheduled to expire in 2028.
The case was heard orally in July this year, and the European Patent Office decided to revoke the patent in its entirety. At present, the written ruling has not yet been released. The focus of this
patent dispute is the proprietary passivation technology of Q. ANTUM independently developed and commercialized by Qcells. Hanwha has said that the technology will help improve the conversion efficiency and overall performance of crystalline silicon solar cells.
A number of Chinese photovoltaic companies have been sued
, it is reported that the above patent is the core technology of the patent war launched by Hanwha in many regions in recent years. Hanwha had previously sued Chinese photovoltaic companies such as Longji Green Energy , Jingke Energy and Trina Solar Energy on the basis of the patent.
In 2019, Hanhua and its affiliates filed patent infringement lawsuits in the United States, Australia and Germany, claiming that some products sold by several photovoltaic companies in the above-mentioned areas infringed their patents, including two Chinese photovoltaic companies, Longji Green Energy and Jingke Energy.
In 2022, Hanwha focused on another Chinese photovoltaic company, Trina Solar. Hanwha filed a temporary injunction application with the Dusseldorf District Court in Germany, alleging infringement of component products sold by the German subsidiary of Tianhe.
In the confrontation between Hanwha and the above-mentioned Chinese photovoltaic enterprises, the final result was a reconciliation.
Ending more than 11 years of patent disputes
, the ruling also ended a patent opposition process that lasted more than 11 years.
In 2020, the German court made a first-instance judgment in favor of Hanhua in the case of Hanhua suing Longji Green Energy, Jingke Energy and REC, and issued an injunction, a product recall order and a destruction order for infringing products. Reported that some products of REC are not within the scope of restrictions. In 2024, the Higher Regional Court of Dusseldorf rejected the appeal against the first instance infringement judgment and confirmed Hanwha's victory in the German infringement lawsuit.
It is reported that there were 10 subjects who initially raised objections to Hanwha's patent. However, in the process of appeal hearing, many subjects either withdrew their objections or did not file an appeal, leaving REC as the only objector to confront Hanhua in the Appeal Committee of the European Patent Office.
Reported that Hanwha did not claim damages in the infringement lawsuit, only applied for an injunction, the destruction of infringing products and the recall of related goods. The relevant judgment was only partially implemented in the content of product recall. Now REC Solar can recover all litigation-related costs from Hanwha.
In addition to the revoked EP2220689 patent, Hanwha and REC had previously litigated over the European patent EP3017520 held by REC. In 2022, the objection department of the European Patent Office revoked the EP3017520 patent on the grounds of improper expansion of the scope of patent protection, and did not hear the disputes related to prior art and inventiveness; Hanwha was also one of the six parties who raised objections to the patent.
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