Solar Lighting Manufacturers Kiss and Make Up

The technology behind solar lights has not changed in many years. There have been a couple of changes. One major change has been in the cost of manufacturing and now almost all solar powered lights are manufactured in China. Another major change has been in the design of the solar light.

Some of the manufacturers we represent at SolarTown have been innovating brighter solar lights with updated design. This is all well and good until they think that a competitor has ripped off their design.

GamaSonic, one of the leading manufacturers of solar lights, filed a lawsuit in September against Solar Goes Green (SGG), alleging that SGG’s solar powered garden light infringed on GamaSonic’s patent, according to mondaq.com.

The major bone of contention was the “light-enhancing cone reflector” in one of the GamaSonic solar lights, according to a message we received directly from GamaSonic. According to GamaSonic’s message, “The parties have resolved their dispute and SGG has agreed to stop all marketing and sales of the [allegedly infringing solar light] product. SGG no longer offers such product or any other lighting fixture that infringes on our cone-reflector patent.”

The market is maturing and solar lights are big business. You can find them not only at SolarTown, which of course has the best selection of solar lights, but at your local hardware store and numerous outlets.  

Most of SolarTown’s customers are interested in getting an off grid solution to lighting up their backyard or pathways. It may sound funny but you will be surprised about how many people do not understand that they need to place the lights in the sunlight to make sure that the panels receive sunlight to charge the internal battery.

Some of the lights have a cord so that the light can be in the shade but the panel is in the sun. During the day the solar panel can catch the sun’s rays and send the electrical charge to the battery for storage. Then at night the solar light grabs the charge from the solar battery to light up your backyard.

Now that would be an innovation, how to design a solar light that doesn’t need the sun to work.