LONGi files patent infringement lawsuit against Jinko Solar in China’s Shandong
In a recent development within the distributed PV market in Shandong, industry insider revealed that LONGi has taken legal action against Jink Solar for an alleged patent infringement. The lawsuit filed at the Jinan Intermediate People’s Court in Shandong seeks to halt the manufacturing, sales, and offers to sell the allegedly infringed products. According to reports, the court has accepted the case, with an expected trial date set for March 20th. This marks LONGi's second patent infringement lawsuit against Jinko Solar following a similar case in the United States.
In early January a series of legal battles unfolded between two solar giants. It began when Jinko Solar filed a lawsuit against LONGi for patent infringement in Nanchang, Jiangxi. In response, on Jan 21, LONGi retaliated by filling a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States regarding TOPCon technology. The conflict escalated on Jan 24 when Jinko Solar filed a similar lawsuit against LONGi's Japanese subsidiary in Tokyo, Japan. The legal saga continued as on Feb 4, Jinko Solar's Australian subsidiary took legal action against LONGi’s Australian company in the Federal Court of Australia.
Since 2023, the PV industry has experienced an unprecedented phase of supply and demand imbalance, with competition intensifying to an extreme level. Against this backdrop, many companies are facing a fight for survival. As industry leaders, the multiple mutual patent infringement lawsuits between Jinko Solar and LONGi are seen as an escalation of competition. Some industry insiders have analyzed that LONGi, which was among the first to heavily invest in the research and development of BC technology, saw continuous breakthroughs in BC technology and increased production capacity in 2024. This has expanded LONGi's "BC Ecological Chain," attracting the attention and envy of the traditional TOPCon camp.
The patent infringement lawsuits filed by Jinko Solar against LONGi mainly involve TOPCon cell and module technologies, while LONGi has consistently maintained a leading position in BC technology. Some industry experts have pointed out that the patent disputes between these two companies are not only a competition over PV technology routes but also a battle for future market dominance. Ultimately, it may be that the TOPCon camp is attempting to seek cross-licensing of patents with BC technology.
As a high-tech industry, patent litigation in the PV sector is not uncommon. Previously, the South Korean company Hanwha filed lawsuits against Trina Solar, LONGi, Jinko Solar, and REC Solar and its subsidiaries on a global scale. In 2024, Maxeon took a similar action against Canadian Solar and Hanwha in the United States, while Trina Solar sued Canadian Solar for patent infringement, and Jinko Solar filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Astronergy in Europe.
Industry insiders believe that the PV industry urgently needs to strengthen intellectual property protection to avoid falling into homogenized and cutthroat competition. The core purpose of patent protection is to support the development of advanced technologies, safeguard fully independent and innovative achievements, increase support for research and development of key industry technologies, and encourage the application of advanced technologies and products. Actions that use intellectual property protection as a pretext to seek profit, attack competitors, and hinder the development of new technologies will harm the interests of innovative companies, making it difficult for them to invest in further innovation, leading to insufficient basic and in-depth research, and directly endangering the high-quality development of China's PV industry.
The patents that Jinko Solar is using in its infringement lawsuit against LONGi were not developed through independent innovation, but were sourced from the purchase of PV patent packages from LG Electronics at South Korea.