Solaria has spent over a decade and made significant investments in developing its leading technology in solar cell cutting, stringing and panel making. Solaria protects its proprietary technology through patents and trade secrets. The present lawsuit alleges misappropriation of key aspects of Solaria’s technology protected by trade secrets. Solaria is investigating whether these companies, and potentially others, are violating its patents as well.
In September 2016, Solaria filed suit against various GCL companies, including GCL-Poly Energy Holdings, Ltd., in California State Court. In that lawsuit, Solaria claims that GCL misappropriated Solaria’s trade secrets and breached a non-disclosure agreement pursuant to which Solaria disclosed its high-efficiency solar module technology to GCL as part of a potential deal between the two companies. Solaria alleges that after GCL abruptly terminated the negotiations with Solaria, it embarked on its own effort to develop high-efficiency solar panels based on Solaria’s technology and disclosed Solaria’s trade secrets to Autoway and potentially others as part of that effort.
Early on in the GCL action, the Court entered a stipulated order requiring GCL Solar Energy, Inc., and its employees (including any former employees now employed by its affiliate, GCL New Energy, Inc.), officers, directors, and any wholly-owned subsidiary companies, not to use for their own purposes, or disclose to third parties, any Confidential Information provided by Solaria to GCL under the non-disclosure agreement. The order also required that these defendants return Solaria’s Confidential Information and preserve all information relevant to the action. The lawsuit against GCL is ongoing.
About Solaria Corporation
Solaria Corporation is a solar technology company that is paving the way for distributed, clean power generation through optimized solutions for a range of applications. Leveraging its proven core technology, field performance and sophisticated automation, Solaria delivers solutions that address a unique set of requirements for the rooftop and architectural markets. Solaria headquarters are in California. For more information, please visit www.solaria.com.