The high court here on Tuesday permitted Chinese mobile phone maker Xiaomi to sell and import Qualcomm chipset-based handsets till January 8, as a temporary measure.
In an interim order, the high court had, on December 8, restrained Xiaomi as well as online e-commerce site Flipkart from selling, in India, any handsets of the Chinese mobile maker that run on the technology patented by Swedish technology company Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson.
A bench headed by judge Pradeep Nandrajog, on Tuesday, passed the temporary order as Xiaomi had contended that Ericsson suppressed the fact the Chinese mobile maker has also used chipsets of Qualcomm, which has a licence to use patents of the Swedish company.
Xiaomi sells its handsets exclusively through Flipkart every Tuesday, the court was told during the proceedings.
The bench was also told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Ajit Warrier, appearing for Xiaomi, that on each Tuesday, around 100,000 units are expected to be sold on the site.
Therefore, as part of the temporary measures, the bench asked Xiaomi to deposit Rs 100 per handset sold, towards royalty, in favour of the registrar general of the high court and the amount so deposited be kept in a fixed deposit.
With these temporary directions, the court disposed off the appeal filed by Xiaomi, challenging the high court’s single-judge bench’s December 8 order.
While disposing the appeal, the court directed Xiaomi to furnish an affidavit, before the next date of hearing before the single judge, disclosing the number of units sold by it till then and particulars of the invoices of the Qualcomm chipsets purchased by it.
Xiaomi has contended it did not infringe Ericsson’s patents as Qualcomm had obtained a licence from the Swedish company for its patented technology.
The high court on December 8 also directed the customs authorities to prevent import of Xiaomi phones that infringe the patents of Ericsson and if any consignment was imported, this be informed to the Swedish company and its objections be decided in line with the Intellectual Property Rules.
