EI DuPont de Nemours & Co.
(
DD
) recently took Heraeus Materials Technology and its client,
SolarWorld Industries America, to court for a patent infringement.
The company has filed a lawsuit against the defendants in the U.S.
Federal Court for the District of Oregon.
DuPont has sued the two companies for infringing the U.S. Patent
No. 8,158,504 B2, which was recently issued by the chemical giant.
The patent in question relates to front-side metallization paste
compositions used in solar cell technology, which Heraeus and
SolarWorld infringed upon by manufacturing, selling and/or using
Heraeus' front-side silver pastes.
DuPont has made significant investments to bring innovation in the
solar energy market. The company's innovations have yielded
positive results and have contributed towards making solar cell
technology more efficient. Hence, it has acted in a swift manner to
defend the advances it has made by patenting them and enforcing its
intellectual property rights against trespassers.
The DuPont Solamet Photovoltaic Metallization Paste Technology,
which is in midst of the litigation, is one of the leading
technologies for metallization in crystalline silicon and thin film
solar cell. The technology has helped make solar power more
efficient in an effort to bring it at par with other methods of
generating electricity.
However, it should be noted that destocking of photovoltaics led to
a drop in sales of DuPont's Electronics & Communications
business in the recently reported first quarter as shipments fell
18%. But DuPont remains committed to delivering better solutions to
the industry in a quest to make solar energy more mainstream, which
is certainly impressive considering that it is one of the most
important sources of alternative energy.
We currently have a long-term Neutral recommendation on DuPont.
The company, which competes with
The Dow Chemical Company
(
DOW
) and
BASF SE
(
BASFY
), maintains a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a short-term (1
to 3 months) Hold rating.
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