The photovoltaic patent dispute has recurred, and Aiko has denied the infringement of ABC batteries

This year, following a dispute with Tongwei (600438.SH), Maxeon sued Chinese PV companies for patent infringement.

On November 15, solar panel manufacturer Maxeon Solar Technologies (MAXN) filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Chinese photovoltaic company Aiko Co., Ltd. (600732.SH) and its subsidiaries in a German court, accusing it of infringing a European patent for solar cell architecture, with patent number EP2297788B1.

At about 9 o'clock in the morning on November 16, Aiko Co., Ltd. issued a statement saying that after repeated verification by its intellectual property team and the European intellectual property law firm it cooperated, it was confirmed that the patented technology of the two was fundamentally different and there was no infringement of the patent.

Aiko said to Jiemian News that it has not officially received the notice of response. If it is judged that the disclosure standard is met after receipt, the information will be disclosed in accordance with the relevant regulations of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and will actively respond to the lawsuit.

According to Aiko shares, as of October 31 this year, the company has applied for 1,882 patents, obtained 1,061 authorized patents, applied for 325 patents around ABC (All Back Contact) technology, and obtained 157 authorized patents, forming a perfect protection system for its products.

Maxeon CEO Bill Mulligan said on its website that Maxeon is an industry leader in Interdigitioned Back Contact (IBC) technology and pioneered the development of this battery structure more than 20 years ago. Much progress has been made since the commercialization of the first IBC solar cells in 2004.

IBC and ABC are both full back contact batteries, mainly due to the difference in name.

Maxeon previously announced a world record 24.7% for its IBC module efficiency measurement. Bill Mulligan believes that the intellectual property behind IBC's technology is the result of significant investments and technological advancements. Maxeon hopes that Aiko and its wholesaler, Memodo, will respect the patent rights and immediately stop using the patented technology without authorization.

BC full-back contact solar cells are one of the main development directions of battery technology, but the difficulty of technology research and development is higher than that of mainstream TOPCon and HJT. This kind of battery has a more beautiful appearance and has a broad application prospect in the distributed market.

At present, the main companies in the world that have adopted this technology to go into mass production are LONGi Green Energy (601012.SH), Aiko Co., Ltd., and Maxeon.

Aiko Co., Ltd. is a leading battery company, ranking second in the list of global battery shipments last year, and has been mainly promoting ABC technology and related products in recent years, and will achieve mass production and shipment of ABC modules in 2023.

In September this year, the chairman of Aiko Co., LtdChen Gang was interviewed by Jiemian News and other mediaHe said that technologies such as tandem cells are still in the theoretical model stage of mass production and have not yet matured, and at this stage, the ultimate technology of single-crystalline silicon cells, BC, will be the best choice. Aiko's ABC route is enough for the company to maintain a technological lead for 5-8 years.

The theoretical limit efficiency of ABC technology is 29.4%, and the average mass production efficiency of cells is about 26.5%. According to the third-party certification, Aiko has a maximum efficiency of 24.27% and a delivery efficiency of 24% for 72 single-glass modules based on M10 specifications.

Chen Gang revealed that in terms of conversion efficiency, Aiko's goal in the next step is to achieve about 27%-27.5%.

Since the beginning of this year, Aiko has entered the European market in a big way and competed with Maxeon.

ON AUGUST 21, AIKO ANNOUNCED THAT IT HAD SIGNED A 650 MW SUPPLY AGREEMENT WITH LIBRA, THE LARGEST RESIDENTIAL DISTRIBUTOR IN THE NETHERLANDS AND A WELL-KNOWN INTEGRATED PHOTOVOLTAIC SERVICE PROVIDER IN EUROPE.

In September, Aiko first signed a 520 MW supply agreement with VDH SOLAR, a general supplier of photovoltaic products in the Netherlands, and then reached a supply agreement with Gutami, a Belgian photovoltaic distributor.

In the first three quarters of this year, Aiko's net profit was 1.887 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.77%.

According to Maxeon's official website, its IBC product sales fell by 57.8% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of this year. In the first three quarters, its IBC products sold 268 MW, 211 MW and 89 MW respectively, and the proportion of IBC revenue is also shrinking.

By market, Maxeon's revenue in the EMEA market in the third quarter was less than half of that in the second quarter.

Headquartered in Singapore, Maxeon is the largest shareholder of energy giant TotalEnergies, and now its largest shareholder is TCL Zhonghuan (002129.SZ), a Chinese photovoltaic company and silicon wafer leader.

In 2019, TCL Zhonghuan partnered with TotalEnergies, which spun off its holding company, SunPower's solar cell and module business outside the US and Canada, to Maxeon, which TCL Zhonghuan subscribed for and later increased its holdings.

Maxeon has more than 1,600 patents and two solar module product lines, and its product sales involve Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe and the Americas.

In June of this year,Maxeon has patented shingled modulesBrought the global polysilicon and battery leader Tongwei to the Düsseldorf District Court in Germany.

At the time, Maxeon argued that TW Solar and its subsidiaries had used Maxeon's patent under European patent number EP3522045 B1 without permission.

Subsequently, TCL Zhonghuan issued an announcement expressing its full support for Maxeon's above-mentioned rights protection activities.

Earlier, Maxeon and Chinese company Canadian Solar (688472.SH) also had a patent dispute over shingled solar modules, which ended with Canadian Solar stopping sales of shingled solar modules in Japan until the second quarter of 2025.