Lenovo, Motorola face sales ban on mobile devices in Germany over patent dispute with US firm
- The Munich court barred Lenovo and Motorola from selling devices equipped with Wireless Wide Area Network modules that InterDigital alleges infringed on its patents
- Lenovo said that not acting on FRAND terms would come at the expense of innovation and reduce German consumers’ access to affordable products
A German court has ordered a sales ban on certain products from Chinese personal computer maker Lenovo and its smartphone subsidiary Motorola over a patent licensing dispute with US firm InterDigital, in the latest case to highlight intellectual property legal risks facing Chinese businesses in the overseas market.
The Munich Regional Court recently handed down the decree, barring Lenovo and Motorola from selling selected smartphones and mobile devices equipped with Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) modules that InterDigital alleges have infringed on its patents, according to multiple reports.
In a statement published earlier this month, Wilmington, Delaware-based InterDigital, a technology research and development group that provides wireless technologies for mobile devices and networks, said Lenovo was “an unwilling licensee who has not acted in line with widely recognised FRAND principles”.
FRAND, for fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory, refers to a set of patent licensing terms designed to promote industry innovation and competition.
On Monday, Lenovo told the South China Morning Post that it did not agree with the German court’s injunction and is appealing the case.
“We respect the Munich Court’s decision but do not agree with it,” Lenovo said in an emailed statement, arguing that InterDigital did not act in accordance with FRAND terms when it came to the company or its third-party suppliers.
Lenovo added that not acting on FRAND terms to allow access to standardised technology would come at the expense of innovation and reduce German consumers’ access to affordable products.
