Here's Why Ryobi Had To Discontinue Its Garage Door Opener

The long history of the Ryobi hardware brand encompasses quite a few different tools, gadgets, and nonspecific implements for your workshop or garage. Whether it's power tools, mounting hooks, or other miscellany, Ryobi probably has something to offer you might like. However, the one thing you can't get from Ryobi for your garage, strangely enough, is a way to actually open your garage, and it's not for lack of trying.

Ryobi used to sell two models of motorized garage door openers: the Quiet Compact opener and the Ultra-Quiet opener. As with any garage door opener, these were motorized mechanisms you'd mount to the ceiling of your garage, which would draw or release a long chain to open and close the door, respectively. These devices also came with a wireless indoor keypad and car remotes, and in the Ultra-Quiet's case, outdoor keypads and even a battery backup plugin for Ryobi's ONE+ battery packs. So why did Ryobi stop selling these products? For the same reason a number of companies have had to stop selling a particular product: they got sued, specifically by another manufacturer of garage door openers, the Chamberlain Group.

In 2017, both Ryobi and its parent company, Techtronic Industries, were slapped with a patent infringement lawsuit by the Chamberlain Group, the parent company to several top-rated brands of garage door opener including Chamberlain and LiftMaster. According to a Winston & Strawn report on the matter, the Chamberlain Group's complaint stated that, in the creation of its two garage door opener models, Ryobi had willingly and knowingly infringed on two of the Chamberlain Group's patents. The patents in question were for a "movable barrier operators status condition transception apparatus" and "barrier movement operator battery backup and power equipment battery charging center."

In simpler terms, the Chamberlain Group's patents were for a transmitter that sends information about a garage door opener's current state to a wireless remote, and a built-in battery charging station installed on a garage door opener. Both of these features were present on Ryobi's garage door opener, resulting in a federal court ruling in the Chamberlain Group's favor in 2018.

Following the ruling, Ryobi was faced with two penalties. First, the company needed to pay $11 million in damages to the Chamberlain Group. Secondly, the Chamberlain placed an injunction on Ryobi preventing it from selling garage door openers until 2023. This is why, while both models of garage door opener are still listed on Ryobi's website, they are both discontinued. While the end point of the injunction has long-since passed, Ryobi has yet to release any new garage door openers. The brand could try for it if it felt so inclined, but perhaps it would rather not risk poking the proverbial bear again.