Context: Maxeon Solar Technologies, a Singapore-based solar panel manufacturer, sued Canadian Solar in both Japan and the U.S. over the alleged infringement of several of its solar cell module-related patents.
- In Japan, it filed an action in the Tokyo District Court in September 2020 (over JP6642841 (“Shingled solar cell module”), which ultimately led to a settlement in April 2022.
- In the U.S., Maxeon filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in March 2024, alleging that Canadian Solar’s Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact (TOPCon) panels infringed three of its patents related to solar cell technology. Canadian Solar sought dismissal of the case, but this was denied in July 2025. Meanwhile, it also sought invalidation at the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in July 2024, causing the Eastern District of Texas to stay the patent infringement case while the PTAB made its decisions. In January, the USPTO’s PTAB invalidated all the claims (except one) from the three Maxeon patents-in-suit, granting Canadian Solar a significant win (January 16, 2026 ip fray article). This was a major setback for Maxeon, which had already seen a major drop in its shipment volumes due to U.S. Customs exclusions on its panels since mid-2024 (November 14, 2024 Maxeon press release).
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Counsel
In the U.S., Canadian Solar was represented by a team at Sidley Austin: Brooke Shanelle Boll, Leif E. Peterson, Michael J Bettinger, and Samuel N. Tiu, as well as Gillam & Smith’s Melissa Richards Smith.
Meanwhile, Maxeon was represented by Vinson & Elkins’s Eric Joseph Klein, Corbin J Cessna, Hilary L Preston, Jeffrey R. Swigart, Paige Holland Wright, Robert M. Levy, as well as PV Law’s Bradford A Cangro, Jacob Andrew Snodgrass, Jeremy D Peterson, and a team at Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox.