In 2025, overcapacity, price reduction, and internal competition revolve around China’s photovoltaic industry. With the outbreak of a new round of “patent wars” at the beginning of the year, the competition in the Chinese photovoltaic industry has shifted from “price wars” to “patent encirclement”.
On January 3, 2025, the Chinese photovoltaic industry saw a new round of “patent wars” as JA Solar Technology filed a lawsuit against Longi Green Energy at the Nanchang Intermediate People’s Court in Jiangxi Province, accusing the latter of infringing its TOPCon cell and module technology-related invention patents, demanding an injunction and compensation for economic losses. Subsequently, Tongwei Solar filed a lawsuit against Arctech Solar in Shanghai on February 10, seeking a claim amount of up to 1 billion yuan.
This marks a comprehensive escalation of the patent offensive and defensive war among Chinese photovoltaic giants. The reason behind this is that as competition in the photovoltaic market shifts from “price wars” to “patent encirclement,” companies are vying for the right to define technology and market discourse through patent protection, particularly in the competition between TOPCon and BC technology routes.
According to a report by “Daily Economic News” on March 6, 2025, the competition in the photovoltaic industry has shifted from “price wars” to “patent encirclement.”
JA Solar Technology and Longi Green Energy are engaged in a global patent offensive and defensive battle, while Tongwei Solar’s 1 billion yuan claim against Arctech Solar has shaken the industry. This global wave of photovoltaic “patent wars” is dragging the Chinese photovoltaic industry into unprecedented uncertainty.
On the surface, it appears to be about protecting patents, but in reality, it is some photovoltaic manufacturers using intellectual property as a weapon to compete for the right to define technology and market discourse. Behind this battlefield, there is both a “life and death struggle” between TOPCon and BC technology routes and deep-seated anxieties among Chinese photovoltaic companies in technological upgrades and global expansion.
Lu Fang, Secretary-General of the Photovoltaic Committee of the China Green Supply Chain Alliance, stated that the phenomenon of fighting and consuming each other with patent disputes must be stopped as soon as possible. The current photovoltaic cycle has been a long one, close to two years now, and we cannot afford for the industry ecosystem to be ruined by blind fighting and internal conflicts in the dark before dawn.