{"id":48,"date":"2017-11-17T16:50:07","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T20:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/?p=48"},"modified":"2017-11-30T10:26:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T14:26:38","slug":"strategic-solar-energy-settles-patent-suit-against-affordable-solar-installation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/2017\/11\/17\/strategic-solar-energy-settles-patent-suit-against-affordable-solar-installation\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategic Solar Energy Settles Patent Suit Against Affordable Solar Installation"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Strategic Solar Energy and Affordable Solar Installation have settled a patent infringement lawsuit.<\/li>\n<li>Patents may provide valuable leverage against market competitors. Parties infringing a patent may face a court injunction against further infringing activities and monetary damages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Arizona\u2019s Strategic Solar Energy LLC has settled its patent infringement lawsuit against New Mexico-based competitor Affordable Solar Installation, Inc. Strategic, which designs and installs a solar panel canopy branded as the PowerParasol\u00ae canopy (see <a href=\"https:\/\/powerparasol.com\/\">https:\/\/powerparasol.com\/<\/a>), filed the lawsuit in December 2016 to assert infringement of its U.S. Patent Number 8,825,500 (the \u2018500 Patent). In a court order dated October 13, 2017, the case was dismissed due to a settlement between the parties.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Strategic is the owner of two patents and one patent application that cover aspects of its PowerParasol\u00ae canopy invention. The \u2018500 Patent that was asserted against Affordable is directed to a solar panel canopy (formally called a \u201csolar panel holding structure\u201d or \u201cSPHS\u201d) as pictured in some of the patent figures below:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-1-Strategic-Solar.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-49\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-1-Strategic-Solar.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1110\" height=\"557\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-1-Strategic-Solar.png 1110w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-1-Strategic-Solar-300x151.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-1-Strategic-Solar-768x385.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-1-Strategic-Solar-1024x514.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-4A-Strategic-Solar.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-50\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-4A-Strategic-Solar.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1211\" height=\"655\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-4A-Strategic-Solar.png 1211w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-4A-Strategic-Solar-300x162.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-4A-Strategic-Solar-768x415.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/Figure-4A-Strategic-Solar-1024x554.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Figures 1 and 4A of the \u2018500 Patent.<\/p>\n<p>These canopies are designed to provide shade and dappled light to spaces below, and are typically installed above public spaces such as parking lots or courtyards.<\/p>\n<p>Affordable appears to have drawn Strategic\u2019s ire by winning a contract to build a solar panel canopy over the parking lot of a Fry\u2019s Food and Drug in Goodyear, Arizona. Strategic had previously installed canopies at several Fry\u2019s locations, and greeted its new competitor with a letter asserting infringement of the \u2018500 Patent. The letter demanded that Affordable cease-and-desist from its plans to build the canopy. Strategic follow that letter with this lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Although the terms of the settlement do not appear to have been made public, Strategic\u2019s actions demonstrate the valuable leverage that maybe gained over market competitors by seeking patent protection. A patent holder such as Strategic can bring a patent suit and request that the court award: (1) monetary damages, (2) an injunction against further infringing behavior, (3) tripled damages in the case of willful infringement, and (4) attorney\u2019s fees. The alleged infringer must therefore consider not only the possibility that it will suffer monetary losses in court, but that it may be prevented by court order from performing this type of work in the future.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Post originally drafted 10\/17\/2017.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Strategic Solar Energy and Affordable Solar Installation have settled a patent infringement lawsuit. Patents may provide valuable leverage against market competitors. Parties infringing a patent may face a court injunction against further infringing activities and monetary damages. Arizona\u2019s Strategic Solar Energy LLC has settled its patent infringement lawsuit against New Mexico-based competitor Affordable Solar Installation, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/2017\/11\/17\/strategic-solar-energy-settles-patent-suit-against-affordable-solar-installation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Strategic Solar Energy Settles Patent Suit Against Affordable Solar Installation&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21,22,6,7,5,20],"ppma_author":[122],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-affordable-solar-installation","tag-justus-getty","tag-patent","tag-patent-infringement","tag-solar","tag-strategic-solar-energy"],"authors":[{"term_id":122,"user_id":226,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jlgetty","display_name":"Justus Getty","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/gettyjustus-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}