Solarex Suit Alleges Patent Violation by Arco Solar

Solarex, a subsidiary of Amoco, has filed suit to prevent Camarillo-based Arco Solar from making “thin film” solar cells, a practice Solarex says infringes on its patent rights.

The suit, filed last Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Delaware, alleges that Arco Solar manufactures thin film cells using a technology similar to the one that Solarex purchased under a 1983 exclusive licensing arrangement with RCA.

Solarex, based in Rockville, Md., is seeking unspecified damages.

In response, Atlantic Richfield, Arco Solar’s parent company, countersued Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, asking that court to declare the patent-infringement claim invalid.

Albert Greenstein, a spokesman at Arco’s Los Angeles headquarters, said the company will not comment on the suits until it reviews the complaint from Solarex.

Thin film panels are pieces of glass sprinkled with tiny energy-producing silicon crystals. They are much less expensive to make than standard solar panels, which consist of many small cells soldered together.

Arco Solar has been producing a limited number of thin film panels for the consumer market since 1984.

According to the Solarex suit, RCA received three patents for the thin film technology--in 1977, 1980 and 1982--and granted Solarex exclusive rights to the technology in August, 1983. Soon after, Arco Solar began producing its thin film panels.

The suit says that Solarex informed Arco Solar in June, 1984, of the licensing agreement, and that Solarex also offered to sell rights to the technology to Arco Solar in October, 1985.

Much of Arco Solar’s revenue comes from selling solar power cells for navigation buoys and microwave repeater stations used at remote locations where power is expensive to supply.

But, with the traditional cells, Arco Solar’s products have had a relatively limited market.

With the cheaper, thin-film technology, the company is trying to expand into the more lucrative consumer market for products such as calculators, watches, computers and toys.

Arco Solar already sells a solar battery charger for boats and recreational vehicles.

To move closer to that consumer market, Arco Solar last year joined with Showa Shell Sekiyu, one of Japan’s largest oil companies, to manufacture solar cells in Tokyo.