Coming off recent wins in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) for solar panel manufacturers LONGi Solar and Canadian Solar, Sidley was again tapped by Canadian Solar to defend an ITC Investigation filed by Boston-based Advanced Silicon Group Technologies (ASGT) in June 2021. The Investigation accused Canadian Solar, a leading worldwide supplier of commercial solar panels, of infringing six patents directed to texturing the underlying polycrystalline solar cells with nanowires and nanostructures. Following a weeklong hearing in April 2022, Chief Administrative Law Judge Clark S. Cheney issued an Initial Determination, on September 2, 2022, finding that Canadian Solar did not infringe any of the asserted patents, that certain of the asserted claims are invalid, and that ASGT had not satisfied the technical prong of the domestic industry requirement. On February 27, 2023, the Commission issued a Final Determination Affirming a Finding of No Violation for our client. It was a clean sweep across the board — no infringement, invalidity on selected claims, and no domestic industry.
The Sidley team included lawyers and staff from the San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Dallas, and Palo Alto offices. Mike Bettinger, Sam Tiu, and Mike Franzinger were joined by Mike Hatcher, Curt Holbreich, Andrew Langford, Tung Nguyen, Matthew Mahoney, and John Miscevich.
