Google has lost the right to sell Pixel 7 smartphones in Japan following a patent dispute with Korean company Pantech.
A Japanese district court ruling found Google guilty of patent infringement related to LTE connectivity. The lawsuit claims that the tech giant used the exact same technology described in Pantech’s patent. The patent relates to how an LTE modem communicates with cell towers.
In 2023, Pantech reported that Google had used this technology without permission in Pixel series smartphones 7 and filed a lawsuit for a patent infringement injunction against Google Japan. The patent that is the subject of this lawsuit is a control signal reproduction technology that sends an acknowledgment (ACK) signal from a base station to a terminal in an LTE network.
The Tokyo court ruled that the Pixel 7 phones should be withdrawn from sale because Google refused to cooperate with the lawsuit. The company refused to pay royalties and also refused to provide data on the number of Pixel 7s sold in the country. The Japanese market is very important for Google — it is the second largest smartphone vendor in the country, after Apple.
The court pointed to Google’s unwillingness to cooperate, as well as to license evasion, and ruled that «Google is a licensee that does not want» FRAND licensing. This is an international standard that requires holders of standard patents to grant licenses to companies implementing the technology on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Japan does not normally practice FRAND-based sales injunctions for standard patent infringement. However, the court considered Google’s insincere position as an exceptional reason and issued an injunction for the first time.
Pantech is filing another lawsuit against Google aimed at ban on sales of Pixel 9 It is likely that newer smartphones will face the same fate if the parties do not reach an agreement.
Source: Etnews
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