Patents: Lenovo Notebooks and Motorola phones may no longer be sold in Germany

The Chinese manufacturer Lenovo is currently not allowed to sell many of its devices in Germany. Due to a patent lawsuit, Lenovo products equipped with a WWAN module are subject to a sales ban. These are primarily Lenovo-branded Motorola cell phones, but also notebooks and tablets with mobile phone access.

The US company InterDigital had filed a lawsuit, reports Wirtschaftswoche. According to the report, the Munich Regional Court ruled at the beginning of May that Lenovo infringed the US company's 4G and 5G mobile communications patents (case number 7 O 12029/23). On May 8, the plaintiff posted a deposit of more than 4 million euros to ensure that the judgment comes into force early.

Lenovo intends to appeal against the judgment, a spokesperson confirmed to Wirtschaftswoche. For the time being, the sales ban remains in place. Retail dealers may no longer be supplied with new goods.

Patents not on FRAND terms?

"We hope that Lenovo will change course after the court's finding and finally take a fair and appropriate license," wrote InterDigital's legal counsel Josh Schmidt in a statement. Lenovo, on the other hand, emphasizes that InterDigital did not offer the license on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms" ("FRAND") - an obligation for the granting of standard patents. Lenovo is therefore accusing InterDigital of not adhering to the rules by offering allegedly unfair conditions.

In addition to Lenovo, Samsung is also fighting patent lawsuits in court: In April, the Munich Regional Court filed another lawsuit against Samsung. According to the lawsuit, Samsung is infringing a patent held by the Chinese plaintiff Datang Mobile, which is considered essential for the 4G/LTE mobile communications standard.

Here, too, the ruling means that the sale of all affected devices will be banned - specifically the Galaxy smartphones. Unlike InterDigital, however, the Chinese plaintiff Datang has not yet deposited a security deposit to enforce the judgment ahead of schedule.

The company suing Lenovo, InterDigital, is one of the most notorious patent exploiters in the USA. The extent to which InterDigital provides its patents on FRAND terms has been the subject of numerous court cases for over a decade. InterDigital has already fought in court with companies such as ZTE, Huawei, Oppo, Nokia, Samsung and Microsoft.

(dahe)