Case: Patents/Obviousness (P.T.A.B.)

Challenged claims of Maxeon Solar Pte. Ltd.'s patent directed to solar cell fabrication techniques to improve solar cell lifetime, passivation and/or efficiency, and example solar cells fabricated according to the disclosed techniques, aren’t unpatentable as obvious over prior art, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board said, in an inter partes review by Canadian Solar Inc. The board determined that the challenged claims aren’t obvious over various combinations of prior art, including prior art directed to methods of fabricating back-contact solar cells and devices thereof, that relates to thermophotovoltaic conversions systems and to photovoltaic cells useful therein, and that compares n-type ...