PTAB challenges

Proceedings overview

One Inter Partes Review (IPR) proceeding has been filed against US patent 11824136, and it is currently pending institution. This gives a defendant facing assertion of this patent today a relatively open defensive posture, as no claims have been invalidated or sustained by the PTAB yet. The sole IPR is in its early stages.

IPR2026-00230 — SEG Solar, Inc. et al. v. Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co Ltd

• Type: Inter Partes Review
• Filed: 2026-02-18
• Status: Pending. This means the PTAB has not yet decided whether to institute a trial on the challenged claims and grounds. The statutory deadline for an institution decision is typically six months from the petition filing date.
• Judge panel: Not yet publicly available for pre-institution phase.
• Petition grounds: Details regarding the specific claims challenged, prior art asserted, and statutory bases (§ 102 / § 103 / § 112) are not yet publicly detailed in the provided data or immediate search results for a pending IPR petition prior to institution.
• Institution decision: Not yet issued. The institution decision deadline is six months from the filing date, which would be approximately 2026-08-18.
• Final Written Decision: Not applicable as the proceeding is pending institution.
• Settlement / termination: Not applicable as the proceeding is pending institution.
• Appeal: Not applicable as the proceeding is pending institution.
• Defensive value: This proceeding indicates that at least one party (SEG Solar, Inc. et al.) believes there are valid grounds to challenge the patentability of claims in US11824136. As it is still pending institution, there is no final determination on any claims, and no estoppel has yet attached. A defendant should closely monitor the outcome of this IPR.

Strategic summary

Currently, all claims of US patent 11824136 remain untested by a Final Written Decision from the PTAB. There is one active Inter Partes Review, IPR2026-00230, which is in the pre-institution phase. Therefore, no claims are currently CANCELED or SUSTAINED, and all claims are UNTESTED.

Regarding the estoppel landscape, since IPR2026-00230 has not yet been instituted, no estoppel under § 315(e)(2) applies to any potential petitioners or their privies. If the PTAB institutes the IPR and subsequently issues a Final Written Decision, the petitioner (SEG Solar, Inc. et al.) and its privies would be estopped from raising any ground that was raised or reasonably could have been raised in the IPR concerning the claims subject to the FWD. For a defendant currently being asserted against, this means all prior-art grounds are still theoretically available for use in a new PTAB petition or district court litigation, as long as they are not privy to SEG Solar, Inc. et al.

There are no discernible pattern signals yet, as only one IPR has been filed. The petitioner is SEG Solar, Inc. et al. There's no indication of multiple IPRs by the same petitioner, aggressive PTAB appeals by the patent owner, or direct involvement of a defensive aggregator like Unified Patents as a petitioner, although Unified Patents is cited as a source of PTAB data regarding the case.

Recommended next steps

• Monitor IPR2026-00230 closely for the institution decision, which is expected by approximately 2026-08-18. This decision will be a critical milestone, indicating whether the PTAB believes there is a reasonable likelihood that at least one challenged claim is unpatentable.
• Access the public records for IPR2026-00230 via the USPTO PTAB E2E system to obtain the petition and stay informed about filings and deadlines.
• If the IPR is instituted, carefully review the PTAB's institution decision to understand the specific claims and grounds that will proceed to trial. This will provide valuable insight into the patent's potential vulnerabilities.
• If the IPR proceeds to a Final Written Decision, this decision will be critical for understanding the validity of the patent's claims and potential estoppel implications for future challenges.