Xiaomi gets temporary go-ahead for phone sales in India
Three models of China’s Xiaomi Mi phones are pictured during their launch in New Delhi July 15, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Anindito Mukherjee
(Reuters) – An Indian court on Tuesday temporarily allowed Xiaomi Inc to sell some of its devices in the country, about a week after it had asked the Chinese company to suspend sales in the world’s third largest smartphone market.
Xiaomi had been asked to suspend selling its smartphones in a case related to patent infringements that telecom equipment maker Ericsson had filed against the Chinese company.
On Tuesday, the court gave Xiaomi permission to continue importing phones which have Qualcomm chipsets in them until Jan. 8, provided Xiaomi deposited 100 rupees ($1.5712) for every device sold, Ericsson said.
Xiaomi, whose low-priced but feature-rich phones have made it the biggest smartphone vendor in China, sells exclusively through online retailer Flipkart.com in India.
Both Xiaomi and Flipkart.com had been ordered by the Delhi High Court to stop selling the devices until Feb. 5, when it is due to hear the case, according to court documents seen by Reuters.
“Xiaomi needs a license from Ericsson for all their phones imported to India, which will be clarified in the upcoming hearing,” an Ericsson spokesman said in an email. Xiaomi’s vice-president of international operations Hugo Barra said in a Facebook post late on Tuesday the company would have its next sale on Dec. 23.
“We will also be resuming sales of Redmi Note shortly, with the 4G model this time,” he posted.
Xiaomi’s Mi3 and Redmi 1S use Qualcomm chips, according to the company’s website. Its Redmi Note device uses a processor from MediaTek Inc.
(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Mumbai and Suchitra Mohanty in New Delhi; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)