Motorola import ban on Android tablets and phones to start Wednesday

The United States International Trade Commission ordered an import ban on various Motorola Mobility Android devices in May. The ban in question centres on Microsoft’s patent covering the creation of meeting requests from a mobile device.

The ban will take effect Wednesday, July 18th, Motorola has said it has undisclosed plans to keep its Android smartphones and tablets on store shelves. Motorola, owned by Google, did not disclose whether they will pay Microsoft to license the technology, or remove the infringing feature from 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 affects 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.