SolarEdge Opened a Second Litigation Front against Huawei

Photo above: SolarEdge’s digitally controlled three phase inverters

SolarEdge from Herzliya, Israel, opened another Litigation Front in its struggle against Patent Infringements made by Huawei. Today the company announced that it has filed three lawsuits for patent infringement against the Chinese Huawei Technologies Co., this time in China mainland. The lawsuits, filed in the Regional Courts of Jinan and Shenzhen in China, cite unauthorized use of patented technology, which is prohibited by law, and are intended to protect SolarEdge’s significant investment in its innovative DC optimized inverter technology.

Seeking damages and an injunction, SolarEdge Technologies intends to prevent the defendants from selling any products infringing its patented PV inverter and power optimizer technology. These lawsuits follow the filing of three other lawsuits in Germany by SolarEdge in June and July 2018 against Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., a Chinese entity, Huawei Technologies Düsseldorf GmbH, a German entity, and WATTKRAFT Solar GmbH, a German distributor relating to three patents.

“We will continue to take legal action against Huawei”

This may be only the beginning: SolarEdge also announced that it “evaluating filing additional actions to protect its patents.” SolarEdge holds 303 awarded patents and 240 additional patent applications worldwide. Zvi Lando, Acting CEO and VP Global Sales of the company, said: “The significant financial investment and years of dedication and hard work from our R&D engineers needs to be protected from exploitation. SolarEdge’s patents are the result of our relentless pursuit of innovation and commitment towards PV proliferation. “We will continue to take legal action against Huawei and others to protect our assets.”

In July 2018 SolarEdge had extended its lawsuit pending in the Mannheim District Court, Germany, against Huawei and WATTKRAFT Solar, by asserting two additional patents related to its power optimizer technology. The original lawsuits filed in June covered SolarEdge’s DC optimized inverter technology. The company seeks inter alia monetary damages, an injunction with regard to the German market, and recall of infringing Huawei optimizers and inverters from the German market. It asked the court to prevent Huawei from selling in Germany any optimizers and inverters that infringe upon the SolarEdge’s IP.