The Delhi High Court has ruled in favor of permitting Xiaomi to ship over 100000 of its banned Redmi Note 3G handsets back to Hong Kong, bringing relief to the Chinese mobile giant. Since late last year, the company has been prevented from selling the smartphone in India owing to a patent dispute with Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. But Xiaomi can continue offering other devices from its portfolio which do not feature a MediaTek chipset.
Back in December 2014, the Delhi HC ordered Xiaomi to stop sales of all its products in India after the patent encroachment complaint was filed. Xiaomi fought back with the plea that only the 3G version of the Redmi Note ought to be banned since Ericsson’s allegations about the smartphone brand merely had to do with MediaTek processors. Other handsets like the Redmi 1S, Mi 3, Mi 4 and Mi 4i are fitted with Qualcomm chips.
Even the Redmi Note 4G carries a Snapdragon 400 SoC, which rendered the ban on it unwarranted. Ericsson’s claims that Xiaomi has infringed upon its standard essential patents related to network connectivity by not paying for licenses or any other sort of royalty. The Swedish telecom brand holds GSM, GPRS, EDGE and WCDMA patents. Qualcomm already has the licenses needed to enable device manufacturers to use the technology via its chipsets.
Also see: Court lets Xiaomi sell its Qualcomm-based smartphones till Jan 8
While only a partial ban was issued on Xiaomi’s collection of smartphones being sold in India, something had to be done about the unsaleable inventory in its partner seller’s (Flipkart’s) warehouses. According to PTI, the Delhi HC has allowed Xiaomi to return more than 100000 of its unused Redmi Note 3G phones to Hong Kong, after Ericsson agreed to the decision.
