Xiaomi smartphones are the latest rage among value for money smartphone seekers in India and the firm is eagerly awaited to launch its current flagship device, Mi4 in the country early next year. But, things have turned bad for the China based vendor that is banned in the country. Well, the Delhi High Court has issued a ban for Xiaomi to sell, manufacture or import its offering in the country.
This ban will be effective till February 5, 2015 and it has been issued after the vendor was found infringing on select Ericsson patents.
Regarding the same, Ericsson has officially stated that the Chinese vendor has infringed on eight of its patents that are related to EDGE, 3G and AMR technologies. It has added saying that Xiaomi has unfairly benefited from Ericsson’s R&D investment without paying the reasonable licensee fee to use their technology.
Furthermore, the official statement adds that Xiaomi has been refusing to respond to Ericsson despite numerous attempts to contact the same regarding the infringements, forcing the firm to consider taking legal action as the last resort settle to infringement.
Following this, the Delhi High Court has ordered both Xiaomi and its exclusive online partner Flipkart to provide the details of the devices that use the aforementioned technologies and the revenue that they have generated by selling the models.
The Indian Head of Xiaomi, Manu Jain stated that they have not received any official notice from the court and that their legal team is evaluating the situation based on the details they have received. He added that India is a significant market for the firm and that they will respond promptly with complete compliance to the country’s laws. The executive added that Xiaomi is ready to work with Ericsson to resolve the issue.
Earlier this year, Ericsson sued Micromax and the Delhi High Court ordered that the Indian manufacturer pays royalties of 1 percent of device selling price to use the former’s patents.
While Xiaomi has sparked a sudden excitement amongst the Indian consumers, this ban that it has faced now is definitely a huge barrier to its plans for the country.
Here's the official statement from Hugo Barra regarding the ban and infringement:
Dear Mi fans,
We have been committed to continue our sales of Redmi Note and Redmi 1S devices in India. In the last 2 days alone, we received over 150,000 registrations for Redmi Note on Flipkart and the momentum has been terrific.However, we have been forced to suspend sales until further notice due to an order passed by the Delhi High Court. As a law abiding company, we are investigating the matter carefully and assessing our legal options.Our sincere apologies to all Indian Mi fans! Please rest assured that we’re doing all we can to revert the situation. We have greatly enjoyed our journey with you in India over the last 5 months and we firmly intend to continue it!Stay tuned for more information.Hugo(on behalf of the Mi India team)
To be updated...