The legal battle between Ericsson and Xiaomi has finally come to an end after 6 months. Ericsson had sued Xiaomi on copyright infringements last year. Following the appeal, the Delhi High Court imposed a ban on the smartphone maker selling its devices in India.
But, the court lifted the ban in January this year and ordered Xiaomi to pay ₹100 to Ericsson for each MediaTek-based smartphone they sold. The court has also ordered Xiaomi to sell only Snapdragon-based smartphones in India.
For the uninitiated, Snapdragon and MediaTek are two SoC (System on Chip) makers. SoC are treated as core elements of a smartphone. Xiaomi's Redmi Note 3G is powered by a MediaTek SoC, while the Redmi 1, Redmi 2, Mi 3, Mi 4 and Mi 4i all features SnapDragon-based processors. So while the entire Snapdragon-powered Xiaomi devices were available for purchase, the Redmi Note 3G Dual SIM editions are not available in India.
Moving forward, the HC has asked Xiaomi to take all the unsold Redmi Note 3G smartphones back to Hong Kong and Ericsson has agreed to the order.
According to reports, Xiaomi will take back 1,00,000 3G smartphones to Hong Kong. The HC has also asked Xiaomi to maintain a proper inventory of unsold phones with its India exclusive seller Flipkart.
Xiaomi is currently selling its Redmi 2, Redmi Note 4G, Mi 4 and Mi 4i smartphones in India. Apart from selling through Flipkart, they are now being made available through other online sellers like Amazon and Snapdeal.
