Some Moto phones are getting banned in Germany. Should US buyers be worried?

We regularly hear about patent battles: in fact, these things have been a constant in the tech world since the dawn of time. It's a constant thing: somebody stole someone's invention (or did they?) and a legal fight follows.

Rarely are those very impactful for regular buyers. However, now, resulting from a patent dispute, some Motorola phones, including Edge 50 models, are banned in Germany. Should USA Motorola fans be worried?

What is this fight all about?

In our case, it's a WWAN module patent that's in dispute. InterDigital, a technology research and development company, is claiming that certain Motorola and Lenovo devices are infringing on its WWAN module patent.


So far, other countries haven't banned the affected Moto phones. Lenovo plans to appeal the ban, as the WWAN module by InterDigital is a standard essential patent (SEP).

Oppo and OnePlus had a similar thing happen to them recently

Let's now talk about similar situations that occurred recently and try to forecast how this patent battle may go.

We have Oppo and OnePlus' patent dispute with Nokia. After losing the patent battle in 2023, the sales of phones from these companies (including phones from Vivo) were suspended in Germany and several other European markets. Oppo stopped selling its products in Germany first in the summer of 2022, then the other two companies joined. The dispute was once again focused on connectivity patents, and more specifically, 5G.

In January 2024, Nokia and Oppo reached a deal that made it possible for phones from Oppo, OnePlus, and Realme to be sold in the previously unavailable markets once again. So in total, the situation spanned out for around a year and a half (from the moment Oppo phones stopped being available in Germany).

The situation with Oppo and Germany (and a couple of other European markets) did not affect American customers. First off, Oppo doesn't officially sell its phones in the U.S., so there's that.


My main point here being: US customers had nothing to worry about Oppo's ban in Germany. On top of that, even if things were to get worse (which they didn't, but hey) fans would have had just a year and a half of dreaming about OnePlus phones (or even less, given the fact how important the U.S. market is to companies). Something in those lines isn't particularly dramatic, in my opinion. And most people don't buy a new phone every year, too.

The big deal, or the 'worst-case scenario': the Apple Watch Series 9 pulse oximetry patent dispute

Of course, we need to also briefly look at something that did affect US customers, and that's the infamous Apple Watch Series 9 ban.

In 2023, the US's ITC ruled that Apple had infringed on two patents from Masimo, a health technology company, over its blood oxygen monitoring feature on the Apple Watch. Thus it was ruled that an import ban was to be put in place for the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

Apple tried to postpone the ban but was unsuccessful. On December 22, 2023, Apple had to stop selling its newest watches in the U.S. On December 27 though, the federal appeals court temporarily paused the ban. Then Apple was able to come up with a workaround and continue selling its timepieces... without the disputed blood oxygen feature.

But this was a legal battle in the U.S.

So, how much should we worry about the Moto situation?

Although nobody has yet to figure out how to predict the future (and boy, have we been trying, ever since Mesopotamian astrology was invented), I can safely say that the Motorola ban won't really affect US buyers. We will need a U.S. legal battle for any impact on U.S. buyers to occur.


So, if you’re a fan of Motorola, rest assured - there’s no reason to worry just yet.