Carbon provides clarity on patent case with JA Solar

French PV manufacturer Carbon has provided an update on the patent case related to JA Solar's TOPCon patents EP 2 787 541 B1.

The company explained that it is leading a consortium including other unspecified European members that filed a patent opposition to question the validity of JA Solar's patent at the European Patent Office (EPO).

“The lawsuit filed by JAsolar against Astronergy/Chint at the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is entirely unrelated to the patent opposition at the EPO, which involves Carbon,” Étienne Roche, responsible for strategy, communication, public relations and public affairs at Carbon, told pv magazine.

“There is no connection between Carbon and the legal proceedings between JAsolar and Astronergy/Chint, and there is no lawsuit from JA Solar against Carbon and the consortium of European partners.”

Roche said that Carbon started to run a thorough Freedom To Operate (FTO) on TOPCon technology in 2022, when it started to operate.

“At that time, Carbon identified a single patent on TOPCon, which was very broad, originally from LG, Korea and owned by Jinkosolar. A few months ago, JA Solar bought the patent portfolio from Jinkosolar,” he added. “TOPCon is a technology invented and developed in the European labs and we need to keep in mind that it is very broad, shared, and offers different possible technological pathways.”

“As of 2022, when Carbon chose TOPCon as the main technological path for its industrial PV project, the company was quite visionary, because TOPCon was not yet the mainstream technology it would then become,” Roche said. “The broad patent we identified in 2022 was recently granted by the EPO and we were still in the nine-month period during which it is possible to make a simple opposition.”

Roche added that the patent opposition against JA Solar's patent was filed in May 2023, but noted that this action is not a lawsuit nor a legal trial.

“In October 2024, the answer of the Opposition Division was that the patent ‘upheld,' but it is only a preliminary decision,” he added. “Our consortium is now exploring the possibility of appeal, with even more European players involved.”
Carbon said it will finetune its technology strategy following the outcome of the patent opposition.

“In general, Carbon will not lower its guard on these IP matters, because what is at stake for Europe is our strategic autonomy, technological independence, and industrial sovereignty,” Roche emphasized. “As European players, we should not give up on defending the technologies that were created in Europe by Europeans. It is also a way to support the renaissance of the European PV industry.”

In our previous report, Astronergy had first mentioned Carbon as a company involved in the patent opposition case and had also specified the case was unrelated to another dispute on TOPCon it is having with JA Solar.

“Astronergy is involved because, in August of this year, JA Solar made Astronergy a related party in the Carbon Opposition Case,” a spokesperson from the company told pv magazine yesterday. “EPO’s information about the result of the oral proceedings is a preliminary opinion, not a conclusion.”

When JA Solar said Astronergy was involved in the opposition case, it initially omitted that Carbon was part of the proceedings, but it then confirmed to pv magazine the company was involved.