The Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) have decided to revoke patent EP2220689, owned by South Korean solar company Hanwha Solutions, a unit of the Hanwha Group, according to information in the EPO’s public Register.
The decision followed oral proceedings in the case. The written decision had not yet been issued at the time of publication.
According to the EPO, the patent was revoked in its entirety on the grounds of lack of inventive step.
The patent EP 2 220 689 – referred to as the 689 patent – covers a method for manufacturing a solar cell with a surface-passivating dielectric double layer, as well as a corresponding solar cell. The technology is intended to reduce recombination losses at the cell surface, improving solar-cell performance.
Hanwha Q-Cells had not responded to pv magazine’s request for comment at the time of publication.
The company filed patent infringement lawsuits over the use of this technology against Chinese panel manufacturers JinkoSolar and Longi, as well as Norway-headquartered producer REC, in Europe and the United States in March 2019. According to legal media outlet Juve Patent, REC was the only opponent remaining in the final proceedings that led to the patent’s revocation.
In June 2020, Germany’s Düsseldorf Regional Court ruled in favor of Hanwha Q-Cells in the patent infringement case, with the judges saying JinkoSolar, REC Solar and Longi infringed intellectual property rights by illegally using the patented passivation technology in their solar cells.
The judges in Düsseldorf granted injunctive relief to Hanwha, restricting the import and sale of the products in question and requiring the defendants in the case to recall patent-infringing products sold in Germany since January 30, 2019. The ruling also granted Hanwha the right to require the offending products to be destroyed.
In March 2022, the Dutch Court of Appeal in The Hague upheld the cross-border injunction against Longi’s Dutch subsidiary in connection with the case. The ruling followed Longi’s appeal against Hanwha Q-Cells’ first favorable ruling in November 2021.
Hanwha pursued similar patent claims in the U.S. and Australia, against the same defendants in the former case and also against distributors Sol Distribution and Baywa re Solar Systems in Australia.
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