PVTIME – At 31 October, JinkoSolar filed a patent infringement lawsuit against US-based photovoltaic module manufacturer SEG Solar and several of its subsidiaries at the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas. This relates to an alleged infringement of JinkoSolar’s US Patent No. 11,824,136, which covers n-type TOPCon technology.
The plaintiffs in this case are Shanghai JinkoSolar Green Energy Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang JinkoSolar Co., Ltd. The defendants include six SEG entities: SEG Solar, Inc. (“SEG Texas 1”), PT. SEG Solar Manufaktur Indonesia (SEG Indonesia), and SEG Energy Singapore Pte. Ltd. (“SEG Singapore”), New Energy Imports, Inc. (“SEG California”), SEG Manufacturing Inc. (“SEG Texas 2”) and SEG Solar Jiangsu Co. Ltd. (“SEG China”)
The No. 11,824,136 Patent, titled “Solar Cells, Their Manufacturing Methods, and Photovoltaic Modules”, was filed on 12 October 2022 and granted on 21 November 2023. It covers a solar cell design featuring specific textured structures and passivation layers which address contact resistivity issues in TOPCon cells. This design improves the uniformity and performance of tunnel oxide layers, thereby boosting efficiency and stability. JinkoSolar’s patent application covers China, Japan, the US, Australia and Germany.
Founded in 2016 and based in Houston, Texas, SEG Solar supplies photovoltaic modules to the utility, commercial, and residential markets worldwide. According to its official website, by the end of 2024 it had 5GW of cell production capacity, 6GW of module production capacity, and had shipped modules globally exceeding 6GW.
Products allegedly infringing the patent include SEG’s n-type TOPCon solar module series, including the Alpine N and Yukon N ranges, with specific models such as SEG-435-BTE-BG, SEG-440-BTE-BG, SEG-445-BTE-BG, SEG-450-BTE-BG and SEG-495-BTD-BG, as well as any substantially similar products.
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