First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) shares dropped sharply in price Tuesday, after it announced that the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) denied three separate Inter Partes Review (IPR) applications seeking to invalidate the company’s Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact patents through a review process.
The IPRs were filed by JinkoSolar, Mundra Solar, and Canadian Solar in 2025, and were declined on November 20, December 11, and December 18, respectively.
While JinkoSolar and Canadian Solar sought to invalidate First Solar’s US Patent No. 9,130,074, Mundra Solar’s application sought a review of First Solar’s US Patent No. 9,666,732. Both patents cover methods of manufacturing TOPCon crystalline silicon photovoltaic solar cells. First Solar has pending lawsuits against all three companies alleging infringement of its patents in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.
“First Solar believes the USPTO properly exercised its discretion in each of the cases brought by Jinko, Canadian Solar and Mundra,” said Executive Vice President Jason Dymbort.
“We believe that this is consistent with USPTO’s ‘Settled Expectations’ doctrine, which is underpinned by the principle that the longer a patent has been in force, the stronger and more settled the patent owner's expectations should be. The patents at issue in each of these matters were issued in 2015 and 2017, respectively, long before each of these manufacturers’ petitions were filed.”
FSLR collapsed $5.49, or 2.4%, to $238.24.
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