From Flexible Strips to Rhombus-Shaped Solar Panels, Module Geometry, and Design-Patent Protection

—Lightweight, bendable photovoltaic (PV) panels open markets that rigid glass modules cannot serve, including low-load roofs, building facades, vehicles, and portable power. Copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) is the most efficient thin-film absorber suited to flexible substrates and to roll-to-roll production. This paper reviews flexible CIGS technology from the cell to the commercial product and examines how such products are protected by industrial-design rights. The device structure, substrate options, record efficiencies, roll-to-roll manufacturing, and cell interconnection are summarized, and simple analytical relations are given for geometric fill factor, module output, and the power of strip modules of arbitrary length. As a case study, U.S. Design Patent D823,237, a solar panel design filed by Global Solar Energy in 2017, is analyzed with respect to its claim, drawing views, unclaimed matter, term, ownership, and cited prior art, and it is placed in the context of the company’s two decades of flexible CIGS development. It is then compared with D1,126,137, a 2026 design for a rhombus-shaped solar panel, which shows how design protection now extends to the outline of the panel itself. The review shows that design patents protect the appearance of a panel, including families of strip modules of unspecified length, but not its electrical performance. Utility patents and trade secrets are therefore needed alongside them, and the paper outlines how engineers and firms can combine these forms of protection.