In this expert insight, industry veteran Kunwer Sachdev discusses one of the most overlooked tragedies in India's clean energy story: how 77 patents — covering inverter technology, solar systems, lithium battery storage, and manufacturing innovation — were effectively erased when Su-Kam Power Systems entered the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process in 2018, leaving India's power backup sector poorer in intellectual property and richer in hard lessons.
The Story Behind the Numbers
When people talk about Su-Kam's collapse, they focus on the debt, the court cases, and the market share. What rarely gets discussed is what India actually lost: 77 patents that represented nearly two decades of research, engineering, and hands-on innovation in the power backup and solar inverter space.
Kunwer Sachdev, who built Su-Kam from a single-room startup in Gurgaon into India's most recognised inverter brand, has now documented this loss publicly. The breakdown is stark:
- 12 patents: Fully granted — inventions that had cleared India's Patent Office and were legally protected
- 56 patents: Pending — applications in active examination, representing innovations in various stages of approval
- 5 patents: Provisional — early-stage filings covering nascent R&D ideas
Total: 77 patents. Current status: Zero.
When the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) for Su-Kam Power Systems, a court-appointed Resolution Professional took control. The company's IP portfolio — years of engineering work in solar inverters, sine-wave technology, lithium battery management systems, and manufacturing processes — became an asset in a balance sheet, not a living innovation engine. Patent maintenance fees went unpaid. Filings lapsed. India's homegrown inverter IP quietly ceased to exist.
The India Angle: Why This Matters to the Entire Inverter Industry
This is not just a Su-Kam story. It is a mirror held up to the entire Indian power backup and solar industry.
India is today racing to build domestic solar and storage manufacturing capacity, backed by the government's PLI scheme and ALMM mandates. As of May 2026, solar cell capacity under ALMM List-II is approaching 30 GW. NTPC is commissioning a 4.7 GWh battery storage system. Rajasthan just issued India's first BESS integration SOP. The country is building hard — but is it also building the intellectual infrastructure to sustain that growth?
Su-Kam's patent story is a cautionary answer. A company that was filing patents on solar inverter technology, sine-wave UPS systems, and battery management at a time when most Indian firms were not thinking about IP at all, lost everything not because the technology was wrong, but because the financial system failed to distinguish between a company's balance sheet and its innovation portfolio.
Under the current IBC framework, when a company enters insolvency, its IP is treated as any other asset — to be monetised or abandoned. There is no mandatory mechanism to preserve, license, or transfer patent portfolios to other Indian companies or research institutions. The result: India's own innovations, paid for by Indian engineers and Indian capital, evaporate.
Key Highlights
- 77 total Su-Kam patents spanning solar inverters, battery technology, manufacturing processes, and power electronics — now all defunct
- 12 granted patents (fully approved by India's Patent Office) were lost; these covered working, commercialised technologies
- 56 pending applications lapsed during the CIRP process as maintenance fees went unpaid
- 5 provisional patents — early-stage R&D filings — also expired
- Patent categories included: Solar systems, Inverter circuits, Battery storage & BMS, Manufacturing processes, and Application-level innovations
- The IBC insolvency process began in 2018 following NCLT orders; a Resolution Professional assumed control
- Kunwer Sachdev formally severed all connection with Su-Kam in 2019 — confirmed by IBBI official records; he has no current responsibility for the company's actions
- The loss represents not just commercial IP but a national R&D investment that took nearly two decades to build
- India currently has no framework to ring-fence or preserve patent portfolios of companies under insolvency
Su-Kam's Patent Portfolio — at a Glance
| Category | Count | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Granted Patents | 12 | ❌ Lapsed/Ceased |
| Pending Applications | 56 | ❌ Lapsed/Abandoned |
| Provisional Filings | 5 | ❌ Expired |
| Total | 77 | All Lost |
Technology Areas Covered: Solar Inverters · Sine-Wave UPS · Lithium Battery Management · Power Electronics · Manufacturing Processes
What This Means for Installers, Manufacturers & Policymakers
For solar installers and EPC contractors: When evaluating products from brands with complex ownership or insolvency histories, check who actually holds the IP. A patent-backed product from a solvent manufacturer gives you assurance on long-term spare parts and firmware support. A product whose underlying patents have lapsed offers no such guarantee.
For Indian inverter and battery manufacturers: File your patents. File them early, and file them consistently. Su-Kam's portfolio showed that Indian companies can innovate at a level that warrants patent protection — in sine-wave technology, in charge controllers, in battery management systems. Do not leave your innovations unprotected or your maintenance fees unpaid.
For policymakers: The IBC process, as currently designed, has a blind spot around innovation assets. A granted patent on solar inverter technology is categorically different from a piece of machinery — it represents knowledge that, if transferred, could benefit other Indian manufacturers. MNRE and DPIIT should work together to create an IP preservation mechanism within insolvency proceedings for clean energy and deep-tech companies.
A Note from Kunwer Sachdev
Kunwer Sachdev, who built Su-Kam and filed these patents, has formally clarified that he has had no involvement, affiliation, or relationship of any kind with Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd. since 2019. As per IBBI official records, his directorship and all associated capacities ceased upon NCLT's CIRP order. He does not represent or speak for Su-Kam's current management.
The patents Sachdev is documenting were his life's engineering work — innovations born on factory floors, in power-cut-ridden Indian homes, and in the minds of engineers who believed India could build world-class power backup technology. That work is now a cautionary tale. Whether India learns from it is up to the industry, the investors, and the policymakers who shape what comes next.
Read the full original insight by Kunwer Sachdev: 👉 National Wastage: How 77 Su-Kam Patents Went to Zero
Source: KunwerSachdev.com
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