GE and Siemens Gamesa Settle Their Wind Turbine Patent Disputes

April 3, 2023, by Adnan Durakovic

GE and Siemens Gamesa have resolved their wind turbine technology patent disputes ”in their entirety”, GE said in a statement.

”GE and SGRE have reached an amicable settlement of all their wind turbine technology patent disputes in the United States and Europe on confidential terms and have granted each other and their respective subsidiaries worldwide cross licenses under the asserted patent families, for the life of those patent families,” GE said.

The terms of the settlement are confidential. GE said that it does not plan to comment further on this topic.

Siemens Gamesa and GE filed patent infringement complaints against each other in the United States back in 2020.

In its complaint, Siemens Gamesa said that GE’s offshore wind turbine, Haliade-X, infringed Siemens Gamesa’s offshore Direct Drive technology patents.

Prior to that, GE Renewable Energy had filed a complaint alleging that Siemens Gamesa’s wind turbines infringed on GE’s patented low-voltage-ride-through and zero-voltage-ride-through technologies, which ensure that the wind turbines will pass ride-through certification.

In September 2022, a US Federal judge in Boston barred GE from ‘‘making, using, offering for sale, selling, importing (into), or installing in the United States” the Haliade-X offshore wind turbine after the jury had found in June that the wind turbine infringed upon a patent held by Siemens Gamesa.

Two offshore wind projects – the 804 MW Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts and the 1.1 GW Ocean Wind 1 off New Jersey, were exempted from the ruling.

GE was also ordered to pay USD 30,000 per megawatt of rated capacity for each of the 62 Haliade-X wind turbines installed on Vineyard Wind 1.

Back in February, following further hearing, GE was ordered to pay Siemens Gamesa USD 60,000 per megawatt for each turbine to be used on Ocean Wind 1 wind farm.

A court in the UK ruled in November that the design of the GE Haliade-X wind turbine does not infringe on Siemens Gamesa’s patent.