Update: Xiaomi India Head Manu Jain has told Medianama that sales by Xiaomishop.com are entirely without authorization from Xiaomi, and has no affiliation with the company in any way. He added that the site is owned and operated by a third party and is not an authorised seller of Xiaomi devices in India or any other part of the world. Jain also mentioned that the website is infringing Xiaomi’s trademarks, and that they have previously requested for them to stop selling Xiaomi products. Xiaomi currently intends to take legal action against Xiaomishop.com.
Earlier (February 6): Swedish telecom major Ericsson has accused Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi of violating the Delhi court’s December 16 order that allowed Xiaomi to only import and sell Qualcomm chipset-based handsets, reports Livemint. Ericsson has alleged that Xiaomi has continued selling the non-Qualcomm handsets through a website called www.xiaomishop.in, though Xiaomi has denied having any connection with the site.
The website currently seems to be down, and informs visitors that it is under maintenance.
Earlier on December 10, an ex-parte injunction by the Delhi High Court had directed custom officials to stop the imports and restrained Xiaomi from selling, advertising, manufacturing or importing devices that infringe on Ericsson’s standard essential patents (SEP). Local commissioners had also been appointed to visit Xiaomi offices to ensure the implementation of these orders.
Following this, on December 16 Xiaomi was allowed to import or sell Qualcomm chipset-based handsets in India till the next hearing, which scheduled for March 18. This meant that Xiaomi could sell Redmi Note 4G and Redmi 1S in India while Redmi Note that runs on Mediatek-based chipset will continue to remain banned. Also, the company was asked to deposit Rs 100 per device it sold in the country.
Last month, Xiaomi launched the Mi4 in India, the first sale of which is slated to take place on February 10 on Flipkart. Recently, Xiaomi also held a flash sale for unboxed & refurbished RedMi 1S smartphones on e-commerce marketplace Overcart.com. A BGR report mentions that the company has tied-up with other online retailers as well for similar flash sales, but didn’t name any besides Overcart. Xiaomi claims to have sold over 1 million handsets in India since its launch in July last year.
At the beginning of this year, Xiaomi had raised $1.1 billion from a series of investors including DST Global, Singapore’s GIC, Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital, Hopu Fund, and All-Stars Investment among others at a valuation of $45 billion.
