BackDelhi high court lifts ban on OnePlus sales
Court observes that consumer bases of Micromax and OnePlus different, and prima facie the two do not compete or eat into each other's market territory
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New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday lifted a temporary ban on the sale of mobile phones by Chinese phone maker Shenzhen OnePlus Technology Co. Ltd.
A single judge of the high court had, on 16 December, granted a temporary injunction against the Chinese company on a plea by Gurgaon-based consumer electronics manufacturer Micromax Informatics Ltd, which had claimed that it had exclusive right to sell phones with Cyanogen’s software. OnePlus, by this order, was retrained from selling, marketing and shipping its OnePlus One phones in the country.
Wednesday’s ruling observed that the consumer bases of the two companies were different, and prima facie, the two did not compete or eat into the other’s market territory.
The court stated that OnePlus offers high-end products with phones in the range of ₹ 22,000, while Micromax had a mid-range consumer base with phones costing ₹ 8,000.
A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and R.K. Gauba said that the single judge “ought not to have" given a final ruling at an interim stage, as the responses from OnePlus and Cyanogen had not come then. The court asked the single judge to hear the case afresh on 7 January.
The court noted in its order that Micromax exerted “pressure" for a quick disposal of this case.
In its 18-page order, the court noted that proceeding with the case would be difficult without a complete understanding of what rights were granted to Micromax by Cyanogen and consequently, what rights were violated by OnePlus.
“A proper debate needs to take place at the judicial fora i.e. before the learned Single Judge as to what are the features of the software available to OnePlus under Cyanogen and what are the features available to Micromax under Cyanogen," the order stated, adding that additional written documents were required to be submitted to the court.
The order further added that it needed to be discussed whether Cyanogen could create rights in favour of Micromax, in the form of an exclusive licence, while it had already conferred a non-exclusive one (for a limited time) to OnePlus.
Micromax entered into an “Ambient Services and Applications Distribution Agreement" with Cyanogen, with exclusive licence to distribute the same in India.
This was entered into by the two companies in November. OnePlus also claimed to have a collaboration agreement and trademark licence agreement with Cyanogen, which it signed in February to use its trademark and software in the entire world except mainland China.
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