Lately, the popular Chinese vendor Xiaomi was banned in India to sell its offerings as it infringed with the patents of Ericsson. Now, it appears like it is the turn of OnePlus that has marked its first anniversary, though the reason for the ban is different. The Delhi High Court has banned the Chinese firm from marketing, selling and importing the OnePlus One smartphones to India.
The ban comes in after the India based vendor Micromax lodged a complaint to the Delhi High Court that the rival Chinese vendor was infringing on the country specific exclusivity agreement it has secured with Cyanogen by launching the OnePlus One in the country on December 2. Eventually, the CyanogenMod OS would be featured only on Micromax’s YU brand of devices to be launched on Thursday.
Regarding this, Micromax stated that it has incurred major expenses for the brand exclusivity of the US based software and it would suffer irreparable loss if the Chinese vendor continues to sell its offering with the platform preinstalled. It is noted that it is illegal for OnePlus to violate the agreement between Micromax and Cyanogen.
OnePlus is allowed to clear its inventory of One imported in the country. To further continue the sales, OnePlus has to get rid of Cyanogen branding and CyanogenMod OS from One.
On the other hand, OnePlus claimed that it already entered a collaboration agreement and trademark license agreement with the software firm in February to use its software in the global markets other than China. It added that it was informed about the exclusive deal between Micromax and Cyanogen only a fortnight before the launch of OnePlus One in India.
Anyways, the Chinese vendor assured that it will be rolling out its own ROM build based on Android 5.0 Lollipop by February 2015. Furthermore, the firm also confirmed that it will not come up with OTA updates of the Cyanogen platform to the OnePlus One devices sold in India.
Notably, Cyanogen has clarified that its exclusive agreement with Micromax replaces all the prior agreements made by the firm. And, the court has noted that OnePlus may sue the US software firm for breach of contract as per the laws of California.
To be updated...