Patent Wars: Delhi High Court bans Xiaomi Smartphone sales

New Delhi: In a major setback to smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi the Delhi High Court ordered the company and its affiliate Flipkart from selling their products in India. The ban comes in the wake of dispute between the rapidly growing Chinese smartphone manufacturer and Ericsson.

Reason for ban

The Ericsson Company was pioneer in developing 3G, Edge and AMR compliant technologies. These are the essential features of mobile phones these days. Other mobile phone manufacturers have to pay a certain royalty fee to Ericsson for using these technologies. As per a report by the economic times both Xiaomi and Flipkart must provide evidence that the devices being sold by them fall under these standards.

India a lucrative market for Xiaomi

Xiaomi witnessed blazing fast growth to become the third largest mobile phone manufacturer worldwide with its shipments nearly doubling in the previous quarter. India is the largest market for the company outside its home nation China. The company recently set up Xiaomi technology India pvt. which makes the company liable to be answerable to such allegations.
The popularity of the company can be gauged form the fact that its products sell out within a couple of minutes after being put up for grabs in the flash sales in association with flipkart.

The ban has been placed until 5th February 2015 when the High Court will hear both the parties in question.