14 July 2011

ARC Energy countersues GT for anticompetitive conduct

Advanced RenewableEnergy Company LLC (ARC Energy) of Nashua, NH, USA (which was founded in 2007 to provide c-axis sapphire growth technologies and turnkey processing solutions for the LED industry) has filed an Answer and Counterclaim in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Superior Court against GT Solar International Inc of Merrimack, NH, USA (a provider of polysilicon production technology as well as sapphire and silicon crystalline growth systems) and various of its subsidiaries.

In its filing, ARC denies that any of its products or technologies make use of any proprietary GT Solar technology, and has countersued GT Solar for anticompetitive conduct. The counterclaim asserts that GT Solar has made knowingly false and defamatory statements about ARC's business and products for the unlawful purpose of inhibiting sales of ARC’s sapphire crystal growth system into the fast-growing LED market.

ARC also states that GT Solar’s allegations are baseless and that its proprietary c-axis CHES sapphire technology is different from other sapphire growth technologies, including GT’s. ARC says that its technology for growing sapphire crystals on the c-axis affords several advantages over a-axis technologies. It claims that c-axis wafers are the optimum orientation for LED applications, and that c-axis growth leads to greater material utilization and lower overall costs compared with conventional technologies.

“We must defend our right to continue to develop and deliver new and innovative technologies that have very real potential to help solve important energy problems worldwide,” states ARC’s secretary & general counsel Daniel Lyman. “We must also defend the rights of our customers to choose the technologies and products best suited to give them an advantage in the marketplace.”

See related items:

ARC Energy to fight GT Solar lawsuit

GT Crystal sues ARC for misappropriation of trade secrets

Tags: ARC Energy Sapphire crystallization furnaces GT Solar Crystal Systems

Visit: www.arc-energy.com