Last week, India reportedly banned Xiaomi sales and imports because of a patent infringement issue. It was brought to the New Delhi court by Ericsson India who said Xiaomi was asked to license standard essential patents but to no avail. This was after all the good news came out: the OEM might debut in the US in 2015, its App Store reaching the 10 billion downloads milestone, and the arrival of the new Xiaomi Redmi Note in India.
A representative of Ericsson said that they’ve been trying to negotiate licensing for patent with Xiaomi the past three years but the latter won’t budge. “Xiaomi needs a license from Ericsson for all of their phones imported to India, which will be clarified in the upcoming hearing. Our ambition has always been to reach a mutually fair and reasonable conclusion with Xiaomi, just as we do with all of our licensees,” Ericsson said in an e-mailed statement.
Case was filed in court but a partial lift was given as long as Xiaomi would use chips from Qualcomm. This was given after the third-largest smartphone vendor in the world appealed on December 8. The Delhi High Court said sales are cleared until the next hearing happening on January 8.
Xiaomi and Flipkart.com, its e-commerce partner in India, were banned for selling or making more devices that infringe Ericsson’s wireless-technology patents. The Beijing-based company was quick to follow and suspended all sales in India until the case is settled. Xiaomi could still sell those models that use Qualcomm chips so the company is still allowed in the country.
Vice President of International for Xiaomi (or Mi) shared in a Facebook post the good news that Delhi High Court ruled in their favor. Sales in India will resume but subject to certain terms. This means the Redmi 1S is coming back and in fact, the company is having a sale on December 23. Registration will open on Mi India page soon.
We’ll keep an eye on this story and keep you updated.
SOURCE: Bloomberg
