SolarEdge Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Huawei
SolarEdge Technologies has announced that it has filed a lawsuit for patent infringement against Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., a Chinese entity, Huawei Technologies Dusseldorf GmbH, a German entity, and WATTKRAFT Solar GmbH, a German distributor for Huawei.
The lawsuit, filed in the Regional Court of Mannheim in Germany, one of the most pre-eminent German patent courts, asserts unauthorized use of patented technology, which is prohibited by law, and is intended to protect SolarEdge's significant investment in its innovative DC optimized inverter technology. Seeking monetary damages, an injunction, and recall of infringing Huawei inverters from the German market, the lawsuit is intended to prevent the defendants from selling any multi-level inverters infringing upon SolarEdge's PV inverter technology protected in the asserted patent in Germany.
"The success of the entire PV industry has been and continues to be driven by innovative technology that makes PV energy more affordable and ubiquitous. Such innovation requires significant financial investment and years of dedication and hard work from skilled R&D engineers. The PV industry cannot sustain such efforts under the constant threat of, in our view, illegal use of proprietary technology and we will not remain silent as our intellectual property is exploited," stated Guy Sella, CEO, Chairman, and Founder of SolarEdge. "SolarEdge's patents and other intellectual property are the result of our relentless pursuit of innovation and commitment towards worldwide PV proliferation. In order to protect our intellectual property, we are taking legal action against Huawei and its distributor."
SolarEdge holds 126 awarded patents, 169 additional patent applications worldwide, and other extensive intellectual property covering smart energy technology.
Huawei has released their response and says it is evaluating the claims. Huawei does not believe that it has infringed any valid patent rights of SolarEdge will defend its rights vigorously.Huawei will use every means to defend our products and protect our customers not to be affected by such assertions.
Huawei points out that it has established 14 R&D centers dozens of open laboratories and joint innovation centers in 18 countries worldwide. Furthermore, 45% of Huawei employees (80,000 in 2017) are engaged specifically in the area of R&D. Each year, Over 10% of its revenue is invested in global innovations. Huawei, according to the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), tops the list of global patent application in 2017 and 74,307 patents are granted as of December 31, 2017. As one of the largest intellectual property rights (IPR) owner, Huawei has a strong record of respecting IPR of others, in addition to doing whatever is required to protect their IPR assets.
