The Patent Trial and Appeal Board  of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has determined that the claims of patent infringement by Singapore-based solar solutions provider Maxeon Solar Technologies against renewable energy solutions company Canadian Solar are invalid.

Maxeon filed infringement claims in 2024 against Canadian Solar, REC Solar, and Hanwha for violating three patents covering its TOPCon technology.

It alleged that the three companies were manufacturing, importing, and selling N-type solar panels using TOPCon cells and sought damages from the three companies and injunctions to stop making or selling these products.

In lawsuits filed in the federal district court in Texas, Maxeon has sought damages from the three companies and injunctions preventing them from manufacturing or selling N-type panels using TOPCon cells.

In May last year, a Texas court paused Maxeon’s patent case against Hanwha until the Patent Trial and Appeal Board completes reviews of disputed patents, after both sides agreed to be bound by the board’s decisions.

Maxeon has a global portfolio of over 1,650 granted patents and over 330 pending patent applications protecting the innovations underpinning its Interdigitated Back Contact, Shingled Hypercell, and TOPCon technologies.

The company has also filed patent infringement cases against other solar solutions providers.

In December 2025, Maxeon expanded its patent infringement actions against Aiko Solar by filing a new lawsuit before the Munich Regional Court I in Germany, alleging infringement of its core back-contact (BC) solar technology. The complaint targets Aiko’s second-generation and third-generation BC solar modules sold in the European market.

In November 2024, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection continued to detain solar panels manufactured by Maxeon Solar Technologies in Mexico. This detention, which began in early July 2024, has affected multiple product lines, including “Maxeon 3” and “Maxeon 6” residential solar modules and “Performance 6” commercial modules.

As the solar industry transitions from Mono PERC to TOPCon technology and countries emphasize domestic manufacturing, there has been a surge in intellectual property disputes related to TOPCon solar technology in recent months, particularly in China, Europe, and the U.S.