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Court Bans Sale of Xiaomi Smartphones In India

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-phone-for-you dept.

hypnosec writes The Delhi High Court has banned Xiaomi and India online retailer Flipkart from selling any handsets that Ericsson claim are violating patents. The court has also asked Xiaomi and its agents to refrain from making, assembling, importing or selling any devices which infringe the patents in question. Xiaomi says: "We haven’t received an official note from the Delhi High Court. However, our legal team is currently evaluating the situation based on the information we have. India is a very important market for Xiaomi and we will respond promptly as needed and in full compliance with India laws. Moreover, we are open to working with Ericsson to resolve this matter amicably."

5 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. Translation... by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "We haven’t received an official note from the Delhi High Court. However, our legal team is currently evaluating the situation based on the information we have. India is a very important market for Xiaomi and we will respond promptly as needed and in full compliance with India laws. Moreover, we are open to working with Ericsson to resolve this matter amicably."

    Translation: Now that we have infringed all of your patents we are willing to come to an agreement with you but only because you have finally got us by the short and curlies after a long court battle and not because we feel bound by international treaties signed by the Peoples Republic of China since those are only binding for people infringing on our patents.

    1. Re:Translation... by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "We haven’t received an official note from the Delhi High Court. However, our legal team is currently evaluating the situation based on the information we have. India is a very important market for Xiaomi and we will respond promptly as needed and in full compliance with India laws. Moreover, we are open to working with Ericsson to resolve this matter amicably."

      Translation: Now that we have infringed all of your patents we are willing to come to an agreement with you but only because you have finally got us by the short and curlies after a long court battle and not because we feel bound by international treaties signed by the Peoples Republic of China since those are only binding for people infringing on our patents.

      More like the court issued a ruling that's not even remotely legal:

      Therefore, it appears that this order of the Delhi High Court’s injunction order is not in conformance either with international practice or domestic case law.

      http://spicyip.com/2014/12/bre...

      Ericson filed suit, incorrectly, with the highest court. In india, it appears this is not legal, they need to file with a lower court and it get escalated. Xiaomi did not reply to this suit, because they rightly judged it to be out of its jurisdiction. Several other companies were included in the suit, and the replied. The court issued the injunction ex parte, because Xiaomi didn't appear. But the court was wrong to hear the case in the first place so, even its injunction is no legit.

      And that's before we even get into the merits of the case, which haven't even been considered yet. So your suggestion that they infringed at all is completely baseless. All we have proof of is that Ericson filed suit in a court with no jurisdiction and Xiamoi ignored it.

    2. Re:Translation... by gl4ss · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think it's this http://www.ericsson.com/thecom...

      that is, the network ericsson, splitted away from the phone biz long time ago. they sell networks to network operators.

      basically, it's pretty probable that you can't do a 3g phone without infringing. that's kinda shitty of course, since if you want to make a mobile phone that works on standard networks.... but its not just a patent troll as such. however, the india court probably should have just said that they're standard essential and fucked them over.

      and all the big traditional players have cross license agreements, so this shit doesn't apply to them. it's only to keep new manufacturers away from the markets.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:Translation... by aliquis · · Score: 2

      *Ehum*

      Ericsson value: 40 billion USD
      Nokia value: 30 billion USD
      Sony: 23.6 billion USD
      Motorola Solutions (sold network part to Nokia): 15.6 billion USD.
      (All stocks counted using Google finance?)

      Ericsson P/E: 23.18
      Nokia P/E: 60.30
      Motorola Solutions P/E: 26.80

      It's true Nokia was the biggest of them all in phones. It's true Ericsson started to make phones with Sony and later let them take over all of it.

      And as for Nokias phone business I guess we all kinda know where they are now and how much wealth that generated lately ..

      I assume Ericsson or Huawei are the largest players in the Network field.

      Ericsson may have lost its phone business to Sony:
      31 Oct 2014:
      "PlayStation profits up but Sony on course for £1.2 billion loss", metro.co.uk
      Ericsson seem to be the more healthy company ..

      31 Juli wsj.com:
      "But Sony's mobile-phone unit, which a year ago had been the company's most profitable electronics division, posted an operating loss amid sagging sales."

      Not that I've looked into it a lot. But I'm not sure you're giving Ericsson enough credit.

      https://www.google.com/finance...
      Says 3.7 billion for Huawei but I don't know whatever it's all the stocks and if it's of any use.
      Likely not:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...
      Says $3.46 billion in profit 2013.

    4. Re:Translation... by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      That's not how large aquisitions work.

      Eriksson, like most early mobile companies had two major arms - networks and mobile phones. This is because early development work was mostly in developing both network and phone side elements.

      It's mobile phone arm was a massive loss leader, largely crushed by Nokia Mobile Phones unit in early 2000s. They first fused it with Sony's tiny one, forming a co-owned Sony-Eriksson unit. Then in 2012 Sony bought Eriksson out of the business, at which point Eriksson focused on mobile networks. This left Eriksson with a healthy stack of patents out of the deal, which it uses here to troll other mobile phone manufacturers.

      This is the same risk that competition watchdogs in various countries feared to come from Nokia after MS purchased its mobile phones division as well, which is why that deal included some heavy clauses on Nokia not patent trolling. Apparently no such clause or insufficient clauses were included for Sony-Eriksson buyout deal.