Patent infringement: Lenovo’s 4G/5G mobile phones and tablets are completely banned in Germany

InterDigital, an American mobile, video and artificial intelligence technology company, recently announced that it has obtained an injunction from the Munich District Court in Germany due to Lenovo (including Motorola Mobility) infringing its 4G and 5G equipment patents. This also means that Lenovo’s devices that support 4G/5G networks (including mobile phones, tablets, etc.) will be banned from sale in Germany.

The Munich District Court held that Lenovo infringed on InterDigital’s patents related to 4G and 5G equipment. InterDigital hoped to provide licensing on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, but Lenovo was a reluctant licensee. People do not act in accordance with recognized FRAND principles.

InterDigital Chief Legal Officer Josh Schmidt said: "The strength of our product portfolio and the quality of our standards contributions have once again been recognized by the court."

After the court found that Lenovo's actions constituted delay, we I hope Lenovo changes direction and finally gets a fair and reasonable license.

According to information, it is understood that InterDigital owns a series of wireless communication standard essential patents (SEP), which have been declared as 3G, Required for 4G and 5G cellular technology standards.

InterDigital seeks to license standard essential patents to Lenovo, which implements standards based on these cellular network technologies in its phones, tablets and PCs.

After the two parties were unable to reach an agreement on the terms of Lenovo's license, InterDigital filed lawsuits against Lenovo in 2019 in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries on the grounds of patent infringement. These patents were Standard essential patents for 3G, 4G and 5G.

In March 2023, Judge James Mellor of the High Court in London, England, stated in a written ruling that the previous offers made by Lenovo and InterDigital were inconsistent with fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) requirements. ) terms. InterDigital had offered to provide Lenovo with a six-year patent license for $337 million.

Finally, the UK High Court concluded that Lenovo should pay InterDigital a FRAND rate of US$0.175 per cellular device for a global license to InterDigital’s product portfolio.

The court’s FRAND rate decision was closer to Lenovo’s offer of $0.16 per device than InterDigital’s request of $0.498 per device.

Therefore, Lenovo needs to pay InterDigital a one-time payment of US$138.7 million for devices based on relevant patents sold between 2007 and the end of 2023 at a licensing rate of US$0.175 per device.

Lenovo said at the time that the ruling was "a major victory for the technology industry and the customers we serve."

John Mulgrew, Lenovo's chief intellectual property officer, also said in a statement that the decision "reinforces FRAND's critical role in promoting transparent and fair licensing practices for standardized technologies." .

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