DuPont patent threat chills Giga Solar's customers

Dec 2, 2014 - Taiwanese firm Giga Solar Materials Corp has reportedly lost two local customers after news that US industrial conglomerate DuPont (NYSE:DD) was to file a patent infringement lawsuit against it.

Chinese paper Economic Daily News on Monday said the US group has warned cell manufacturers that they might face legal troubles if they continue using Giga Solar’s silver paste. DuPont is planning to sue the Taiwanese maker for patent infringement in the US.

Taiwan-based Solartech Energy (TPE:3561) has stopped using Giga Solar’s front-side silver paste for photovoltaic (PV) cells and turned to DuPont’s product instead, the same newspaper reported. Digitimes today said that Taiwan-based Green Energy Technology Inc (TPE:3519) has also given up Giga Solar’s silver paste.

In a statement on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, Giga Solar said there has been no written warning from DuPont. It also pointed out that it mostly exports silver pastes to Europe and China, and not to the US.

This summer DuPont also filed a lawsuit against US solar company SunEdison Inc (NYSE:SUNE), accusing it of indirectly infringing on its patented technology for PV metallisation pastes. More specifically, it said that the solar cells and modules made by SunEdison use a solar metalisation paste from South Korean Samsung SDI (KRX:006400), which infringes on DuPont’s patented tellurium paste technology.

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