"As long as it is a patent, whether it is bought, purchased or original, we respect it. But if patents are used to trigger patent wars, so that everyone can focus on such disputes, it will delay the development of China's original technology. ”

On February 27, Qu Xiaohua, founder and chairman of Canadian 688472.SH Solar, said in an interview with Jiemian News and other media.

At the China Photovoltaic Storage Original Technology Forum held on the same day, he used the "dark forest" as a metaphor for the current situation of the photovoltaic industry, and pointed out that the current "patent has become a weapon of involution". The forum was co-hosted by Canadian Solar and LONGi Green Energy (601012.SH).

In his speech at the forum, Qu Xiaohua said that Canadian Solar has encountered several patent lawsuits initiated by foreign companies every year, and has not lost a single lawsuit. Except for a purely porcelain-related lawsuit that occurred during the A-share listing, Canadian Solar has never gone to court with a domestic competitor over a patent.

"All of a sudden everything changed, and I was sad." Qu Xiaohua said.

Canadian Solar is currently in the midst of a patent battle with Trina Solar (688599.SH).

On the 10th of last month, Trina Solar announced that it had filed a lawsuit with the Jiangsu Provincial High People's Court against Canadian Solar for infringing its invention patent, claiming more than 1.058 billion yuan. According to Jiemian News, this is the highest claim record in the history of photovoltaic patent disputes in public information.

The day after Trina Solar announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Canadian Solar, Canadian Solar announced that it denied the infringement and said that there was strong evidence to prove that the two patents involved in the case should be invalid, and that the company's products and processes did not infringe the two patents.

According to the announcement issued by Canadian Solar, the two patents involved in Trina Solar's lawsuit were purchased from Shangrao Xinyuan Yuedong Technology Development Co., Ltd. on February 29, 2024 and March 4, 2024, respectively, and originally belonged to LG of South Korea.

In 2022, LG announced its withdrawal from the PV manufacturing industry and decided to sell some of its PV patents. According to industry media reports, LG transferred some of its patents to Shangrao Xinyuan Yuedong Technology Development Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of JinkoSolar (688223.SH). In March 2024, JinkoSolar successively transferred some of its patents to Trina Solar and JA Solar (002459.SZ).

In response to the above-mentioned patent dispute, Qu Xiaohua pointed out that after Trina Solar obtained the patent package from LG, it initiated lawsuits against a number of companies based on the content of the patents. Prior to suing Canadian Solar, Trina Solar had already filed lawsuits against two other companies over the two patents.

"If you buy patents to protect yourself and at the same time promote your own originality, that's a good thing. But if you get a patent, just to use the patent to restrict others, that's another way of saying. Qu Xiaohua said.

Li Zhenguo, founder and president of LONGi Green Energy, also said in the aforementioned interview that he is worried about the current situation facing the photovoltaic industry.

Li Zhenguo said that it is necessary to be vigilant against the vicious competition that may occur due to the business difficulties of enterprises in this round of industry cycle, and should contribute wisdom and strength to enterprises and the photovoltaic industry through the cycle through independent innovation and original technology, rather than setting obstacles to the high-quality development of the photovoltaic industry through commercial purposes "take-it-ism" and "inferior quality and low price", which will discredit the international image of China's photovoltaic industry and bring irreversible impact.

Since the beginning of this year, LONGi Green Energy has been sued by JinkoSolar three times for patent infringement in China, Japan and Australia.

In early January, LONGi Green Energy responded to Jiemian News and other media in response to patent issues, saying that it had paid attention to the media information on the alleged patent infringement sued by Jinko, but had not yet received the relevant legal documents.

"The company will actively investigate and respond, and if necessary, it will also file counterclaims against TOPCon and other technology products." LONGi Green Energy proposed.

Since then, according to Jiemian News, LONGi Green Energy has countersued JinkoSolar for patent infringement in Texas, USA, and the related technology involved in the lawsuit is also TOPCon.

TOPCon is a new generation of photovoltaic mainstream technology. The new generation of photovoltaic technology routes mainly includes heterojunction (HJT), BC technology, etc.

In the past two years, most enterprises, including cross-border players, have given priority to TOPCon technology. However, LONGi Green Energy announced in 2023 that the company's future battery route will be dominated by BC technology.

Regarding the layout of the technology route in the U.S. market, Li Zhenguo revealed that LONGi Green Energy will not deploy the TOPCon technology route in the U.S. market, which is mainly based on the complexity of patents in the U.S. in this technology field.

"At present, LONGi's business in the United States is still dominated by PERC technology, and the next development direction has not yet been fully determined." Li Zhenguo said.

Li Zhenguo said in the interview that although from a legal point of view, patent litigation is a normal commercial rights protection behavior, when filing a lawsuit, he still needs to ask himself: "What is the original intention of doing this?" What does it mean for the development of the PV industry and industry, as well as for the international image of the PV industry as a whole? ”

Li Zhenguo pointed out that in the past few years, the photovoltaic industry has developed rapidly, laying a certain foundation for the realization of the goal of carbon neutrality and becoming a supporting force for the future energy transition. But behind this, the PV industry as a whole has insufficient respect for intellectual property rights. An innovation within an industry can quickly become public knowledge in the industry.

Li Zhenguo said that in the past two years, the spread and popularization of TOPCon technology has reached a "peak" situation without technical barriers and thresholds. In his opinion, the emergence of this phenomenon is not optimistic. It may be helpful for the technological progress and technology promotion of the industry as a whole, but it will cause harm to enterprises that are truly innovative.

"Especially when the industry enters a higher level of development, and the cost and cost of innovation are getting higher and higher, we need to have a good environment. That is, through timely R&D investment, we will form independent innovation and original technology. Li Zhenguo said.

Regarding the current patent lawsuits they are facing, Qu Xiaohua and Li Zhenguo both expressed full confidence in their respective technologies.

Qu Xiaohua said that Canadian Solar has done sufficient research on the patents that the plaintiff may propose. In the past two months, the Chinese Patent Office has conducted frequent hearings and defenses.

Li Zhenguo said that LONGi Green Energy has invested heavily in R&D every year, and has achieved remarkable results, and the number and scope of patent applications are also considerable, "I have absolute confidence in the response to existing cases, including counterclaims and counter-lawsuits." ”

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