Beleaguered solar manufacturer Maxeon and South Korea-headquartered Hanwha have agreed to dismiss a court case in which Maxeon accused Hanwha of patent infringement of tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cell technology.
Maxeon first filed the court case in the Eastern District of Texas in 2024, alleging that Hanwha’s Q.ANTUM NEO cell manufacturing technology and Q.TRON modules used technology developed by SunPower, from which Maxeon spun-out in 2020.
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While the companies filed a “joint motion” to dismiss the case, the Texas court specified that Maxeon’s claims were dismissed “with prejudice”, which Hanwha’s defences against the allegations were dismissed “without prejudice”.
Cases dismissed “with prejudice” are closed permanently and cannot be reopened due to fundamental flaws in the case—such as a case being filed after the statute of limitations has expired—or the plaintiff cannot prove facts that would support a legal claim. A case that is dismissed “without prejudice” can be reopened, for example to be heard in a different court.
This could mean that the court has little confidence that Maxeon was able to assert the validity of its patents or the existence of patent violation, or would be able to do so in future legal proceedings, and so has closed that element of the case permanently.
While the decision to dismiss the case means that there will be no judgement made as to the specifics of this case, the fact that Maxeon has ultimately chosen to withdraw a patent infringement allegation, and that its case was dismissed with prejudice, marks something of a defeat for Maxeon.
The company has filed a number of patent infringement lawsuits in recent years, including against Canadian Solar and REC Solar in 2024 and Aiko in 2025, but has rarely been victorious. In the Canadian Solar case, for instance, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ruled predominantly in favour of Canadian Solar in January of this year.
These lawsuits come as the company has endured several challenging years, including the detention of its modules by US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) that led to a 90% decline in module shipments, and its resulting application for ‘judicial management’ in Singapore earlier this year.
The positive result for Hanwha in the Maxeon case will be welcome news, considering Hanwha found itself on the receiving end of an anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigation last week, after leading calls for similar investigations to be made into Toyo Solar and Origin Solar. So-called ‘lawfare’ has become an increasingly common feature of the solar industry, as companies look to protect intellectual property rights and ensure enforcement of legislation in their favour.
