‘Pro Tem’ Relief to Xiaomi for importing and selling of Qualcomm based Handsets in India

Reportedly, a bench of Delhi High Court temporarily allowed Xiaomi to sell a few of its devices in India about a week after the suspension of its sales in the third-largest smartphone market of the world.

Xiaomi as well as online seller Flipkarthave been injuncted by Delhi High Court in its order dated 8^th December 2014 from selling its line of smartphones for it has been prima-facie found to be infringing patents of Swedish technology company Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. We have reported on Xiaomi injunction which can be found here.

Being aggrieved by the order passed by a Single Judge of Delhi High Court dated 8^th December 2014, Xiaomi filed an appeal challenging the order. Xiaomi had contended that Ericsson suppressed the fact that the Chinese mobile maker has also used chipsets of Qualcomm which has a license to use patents of the Swedish company. The bench was also told by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal and Advocate AjitWarrier, appearing for Xiaomi, that on each Tuesday around one lakh units are expected to be sold on the site. Xiaomi has contended that it did not infringe Ericsson’s patents as Qualcomm has obtained a license from the Swedish company for its patented technology.

Therefore, reportedly on Tuesday 16^th December 2014, the Hon’ble High Court granted permission to Xiaomi to continue importing smartphones which comprise of Qualcomm chipsets in them until the next scheduled date for the matter on 8^th January 2015 subject to the condition that Xiaomi shall deposit 100 Indian Rupees for each device sold by them towards royalty in favor of the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court and the amount so deposited be kept in a fixed deposit.

Further, the court has also directed Xiaomi to furnish an affidavit, prior to the next date of hearing before the single judge, which shall disclose the number of devices sold by it till then along with the particulars of the invoices of the Qualcomm chipsets purchased by it.

As reported, an Ericsson spokesman said in an email to Reuters that “Xiaomi needs a license from Ericsson for all their phones imported to India, which will be clarified in the upcoming hearing” whereas Xiaomi said the company would not comment on the developments.

As per the company’s website, Xiaomi Mi3 and Redmi 1S use Qualcomm chips while the Redmi Note device uses a processor from MediaTek Inc.

Sources: Reuters and NDTV

About the Author: Mr. Abhijeet Deshmukh, Trade Mark Attorney, Khurana & Khurana, Advocates, and IP Attorneys and can be reached at [email protected]