Ericsson has raised its voice against Xiaomi once again, saying that China’s leading smartphone manufacturer has violated a 16 December order issued by Delhi High court. The order binds Xiaomi to trade devices in India fabricated with Qualcomm chips only.
In December 2014, Delhi High Court banned Xiaomi from importing and selling its smartphones 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 chip. Following the legal actions, Xiaomi was barred from selling Redmi Note in India since it runs on a Mediatek processor.
On Thursday, the court appointed a special investigator to examine 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.
However, Xiaomi dusted off the allegations saying that Ericsson claim is based on phones sold through Xiaomishop.com, a third part website and not through Flipkart, its main sales partner in India.
Post its recent funding round, Xiaomi is valued more than $40 billion and is looking forward to further deepen its operation in Asian region. A defeat in this patent case would dent the margin that Xiaomi makes and would slow down its rapid growth pace.
IMAGE: UPI.ME
