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U.S. ban on 18 Motorola smartphones and tablets starts tomorrow

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:30PM EST
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The United States International Trade Commission in May ordered an import ban on various Motorola Mobility Android devices for infringing upon Microsoft’s patent covering the creation of meeting requests from a mobile device. While the ban is scheduled to take effect Wednesday, July 18th, the company said it has undisclosed plans to keep its Android smartphones and tablets on store shelves. It is unclear if Motorola, which is owned by Google, will pay Microsoft to license the technology, or if it plans to remove the infringing feature from the 18 products affected by the ITC ruling.

“In view of the ITC exclusion order which becomes effective Wednesday with respect to the single ActiveSync patent upheld in Microsoft’s ITC-744 proceeding, Motorola has taken proactive measures to ensure that our industry leading smartphones remain available to consumers in the US,” A Motorola spokesperson told Ars Technica. “We respect the value of intellectual property and expect other companies to do the same.”

The ITC ruling covers the Motorola Atrix, Backflip, Bravo, Charm, Cliq, Cliq 2, Cliq XT, Defy, Devour, Droid 2, Droid 2 Global, Droid Pro, Droid X, Droid X2, Flipout, Flipside, Spice and Xoom.

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Dan joins the BGR team as the Android Editor, covering all things relating to Google’s premiere operating system. His work has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business and Yahoo News, among other publications. When he isn’t testing the latest devices or apps, he can be found enjoying the sights and sounds of New York City.