Ericsson drags Xiaomi to court for violating orders by selling non-Qualcomm phones through a website
The controversial battle between Ericsson and Xiaomi, the rising star in mobile industry from China, is once again in the news. Ericsson has again approached the Delhi High Court arguing that Xiaomi has violated a 16 December order issued by Delhi High court.
The order restricts Xiaomi to sell and market in India fabricated with Qualcomm chips only.
In December 2014, Delhi High Court banned Xiaomi from selling, advertising, manufacturing or importing its devices in India after Ericsson drafted a case against Xiaomi for patent infringement. However, the ban was lifted partially and the company was allowed to import and sell devices running on a Qualcomm chips.
Following the legal actions, Xiaomi was banned from selling Redmi Note in India since it runs on a Mediatek processor, but Ericsson now argues that an online store is breaching the order and thus in the contempt of High Court order.
However Xiaomi says the store has nothing to do with it. Ajit Warrier, Xiaomi lawyer says that the company has no stake in the website. The phones are “being sold by third parties over whom Xiaomi does not have any control,” noted Warrier.
On 5th Feb., the court appointed a special team to investigate the claims of Ericsson that Xiaomi has violated the terms of the partial ban by importing and selling its phones using MediaTek chipset. The investigator will submit report at a hearing on March 18.
Pratibha M Singh, Senior Advocate put the query in the court saying-
Xiaomi is selling handsets based on non-Qualcomm chipsets through a website called www.xiaomishop.com.
“The company has to deposit 100 rupees with the Delhi High Court for each phone sold” the court ordered until any further action till March 18th.
Xiaomi is looking forward to deepen its operation in Asian region. If defeated in this patent case would hamper both its margins and market share in the lucrative Indian mobile space.
