PVTIME – On 19 August 2025, the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) announced its final determination under Section 337 of the investigation into ‘Certain Photovoltaic Trunk Bus Cable Assemblies and Components Thereof’, assigned investigation number 337-TA-1438. The ITC confirmed that it would not review the initial determination (No. 19), which was issued by the Administrative Law Judge on 21 July 2025. This initial ruling partially granted the petitioner’s motion, concluding that the patents in question were not unenforceable because the alleged concealed information lacked ‘but-for materiality’, a key factor in patent enforceability cases. While the Administrative Law Judge recognised significant factual questions regarding other aspects of unenforceability, including serious misconduct and the legal principle of ‘unclean hands’, these specific allegations were rejected.
On 11 February 2025, the ITC had previously voted to launch the Section 337 investigation into the same photovoltaic trunk bus cable assemblies and their components, thereby formalising the process under investigation number 337-TA-1438.
The proceedings originated on 10 January 2025, when Shoals Technologies Group, LLC, based in Portland, Tennessee, USA, filed a petition with the ITC seeking the initiation of a Section 337 investigation. The petitioner claimed that products exported to, imported into, and sold within the US violated Section 337 of the US Tariff Act by infringing two US-registered patents, numbers 12,015,375 and 12,015,376. The petitioner also requested that the ITC issue a limited exclusion order and a cease-and-desist order.
The named respondents in the investigation include Voltage, LLC of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, and Ningbo Voltage Smart Production Co., Ltd. of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China.
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