Mobile patent war hits India: Ericsson sues Micromax for Rs. 100 crores
Ericsson has sued Indian handset maker Micromax for a whopping Rs. 100 crores, claiming infringements on wireless technology patents.
Global mobile network infrastructure player Ericsson is suing local Indian handset maker Micromax for Rs. 100 crores in damages. Ericsson claims that Micromax has infringed ‘standards-essential’ patents pertaining to 2G and 3G wireless technologies.
Ericsson has filed the suit in the Delhi High Court, claiming that Micromax refused to enter into a licensing agreement despite three years of negotiations.
In this dispute, Micromax has been ordered by Delhi High Court’s Justice Manmohan to pay between 1.25% and 2% of the sale price of the disputed products. The amount has to be deposited with the court. The decision to pay the said amount comes under the FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms) license agreement between the two companies. The amount has to be paid on every phone and tablet under dispute until the two companies finalize their patent deal. The deadline for finalizing the deal is April 9th 2013. The infringed product portfolio from Micromax includes the Ninja series phones, Funbook Talk tablet, and the Canvas 2 series smartphone.
The current agreement between Micromax and Ericsson gives the Swedish company the right to send a representative to check every consignment that arrives for Micromax. Once Ericsson is satisfied, it will inform the Customs office that it has no objection and the shipment will be released to Micromax.
Speaking with TOI, advocate Pratibha Singh, representing Ericsson said, “This shows Indian courts can decide very complex patent litigation swiftly.” A Micromax spokesperson told TOI, “Micromax is committed to negotiating a FRAND licence with Ericsson as has Ericsson undertaken to providing a FRAND licence to Micromax. Since the matter is pending before the Hon’ble court it would be incorrect for Micromax to make any further statements on the matter.”
Ericsson sued Samsung in the US back in November for the infringement of Wi-Fi and 4G patents. Samsung has counter sued the network infrastructure player, Ericsson, last week.
Apart from Micromax, we have a number of smartphone makers entangled in law suites that include the likes of Motorola, Nokia, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Sony, HTC and LG to name a few.
According to the Economic Times, “Ericsson is learnt to be mulling legal action against a few other local cellphone companies as well. Local players selling low-cost handsets include Lava, Spice, Karbonn and Intex Technologies.”
2013 started with a bang for Micromax with the announcement of the A116 Canvas HD. The smartphone is the first budget smartphone to boast of a quad-core processor, 720p HD display and 1GB of RAM running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. After the announcement, it has been a downhill journey for the budget phone maker. The shipment of the Canvas HD has seen delays and with the revised bill, the price of the Canvas HD has risen from Rs. 13,990 to Rs. 14,499.
Source: TOI and Economic Times