Chinese manufacturer Lenovo is currently not allowed to sell many of its devices in Germany. Due to a patent lawsuit, Lenovo products equipped with the WWAN module are subject to a sales ban. These are primarily mobile phones of the Lenovo Motorola brand, but also laptops and tablets with mobile access.
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A lawsuit has been filed against the US company InterDigital, Wirtschaftswoche reports. Accordingly, at the beginning of May, the Munich District Court decided that Lenovo had infringed the US company's 4G and 5G mobile communications patents (File No. 7 O 12029/23). On May 8, the plaintiff received a deposit of more than €4 million so that the judgment could enter into force early.
Lenovo plans to appeal the ruling, a Wirtschaftswoche spokesman confirmed. The sales ban remains in place at the present time. Retailers are no longer allowed to supply them with new goods.
Patents are not under FRAND terms?
“We are hopeful that following the court’s decision, Lenovo will change course and finally obtain a fair and proper license,” InterDigital’s general counsel, Josh Schmidt, wrote in a statement. On the other hand, Lenovo asserts that InterDigital did not offer the license on “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms” (“FRAND”) – a standard patent grant obligation. Lenovo accuses InterDigital of failing to comply with the rules through supposedly unfair circumstances.
In addition to Lenovo, Samsung is also fighting patent lawsuits in court: in April, the Munich District Court filed another lawsuit against Samsung. Accordingly, Samsung infringes the Chinese plaintiff's Datang Mobile patent, which is considered fundamental to the 4G/LTE mobile communications standard.
Here too, after the ruling, a ban was imposed on the sale of all affected devices – specifically Galaxy smartphones. In contrast to InterDigital, the Chinese plaintiff Datang has not yet deposited the security amount in order to enforce the judgment early.
InterDigital, which is suing Lenovo, is one of the most notorious patent exploiters in the USA. The extent to which InterDigital has filed its patents under FRAND terms has been the subject of numerous court proceedings for more than a decade. InterDigital has already fought court battles with companies such as ZTE, Huawei, Oppo, Nokia, Samsung and Microsoft.
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