Lei Jun, chief executive officer of Xiaomi Corp., unveils the company’s new Mi Air Purifier at a news conference in Beijing, on Tuesday, Dec. 9
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc. has been barred by an Indian court from selling its handsets in the country for allegedly infringing mobile phone technology patented by Ericsson.
Judge G.P. Mittal of the New Delhi High Court also ruled earlier last week that Xiaomi’s Indian distributor, online retailer Flipkart, is prohibited from selling the Chinese company’s phones while the court hears Ericsson’s complaint. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 5.
Xiaomi suspended all sales in India “until further notice” to comply with the court ruling and is considering its legal options, Hugo Barra, a vice president for global operations, said in a note posted Thursday night on Xiaomi’s Indian website.
Ericsson claimed that Xiaomi has been violating eight patents related to 3G and other telecommunications technologies.
The lawsuit follows more than three years of attempts to negotiate licensing for patents with Xiaomi, Ericsson said in an e-mail Thursday.
“It is unfair for Xiaomi to benefit from our substantial R&D investment without paying a reasonable licensee fee for our technology,” the company said.
The Economic Times newspaper reported Thursday that Xiaomi has sold more than 800,000 smartphones, including the popular Mi3 and low-cost Red Mi 1S, in India since their launch here in July.
Xiaomi, founded in 2010, has grown quickly on the strength of smartphone handsets priced as low as USD115 and Internet-based marketing and distribution. Xiaomi passed Samsung as China’s best-selling smartphone brand by number of units sold in the second quarter of this year.
The company is starting to expand abroad, targeting developing India and other developing markets.
“I am satisfied that plaintiff (Ericsson) has made out a prima facie case for grant of an interim injunction in its favor,” the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Judge Mittal as saying in his order.
The judge also ordered Xiaomi and Flipkart to file affidavits disclosing the number of devices they have sold in India using the technologies at issue in the case.
Lei Jun, the founder and chief executive officer of Xiaomi, has set a goal of passing Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. in the global smartphone market within a decade. AP/Bloomberg
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