Some of you guys might have heard that Xiaomi was recently hit with a ban in India where their phones were not allowed to be sold in the country. An Indian court later reversed that decision, ultimately allowing Xiaomi to resume sales until their hearing in February 2015 over alleged infringement of Ericsson’s patents.
Well it looks like another Chinese company has been hit with a ban in India, and this time it is that of OnePlus, the makers of the CyanogenMod-powered OnePlus One. The Delhi High Court has recently served OnePlus with a ban that prevents the company from importing, selling, and marketing their handset in the country.
Apparently this ban is courtesy of Micromax, an Indian smartphone OEM, who complained that OnePlus was infringing upon a country-exclusive deal that they have with Cyanogen whose Android ROM will be featured on Micromax’s Yu brand of smartphones. According to Micromax they claim that they have “incurred major expenses for creation of a brand exclusivity for providing to Indian customers mobile phones with Cyanogen operating systems.”
They also add that they “would suffer irreparable harm and loss if the defendants (OnePlus) are permitted to continue with their illegal acts in violation of the agreement between Micromax and Cyanogen.” This follows on the heels of a statement released by Cyanogen last week when they announced that OnePlus One handsets bought in India would not receive further support from the developers.
With this ban, OnePlus is effectively locked out of the world’s third largest smartphone market at least for now, a setback for the budding company who had previously courted controversy and dissatisfaction with the way they handled their marketing and pre-orders.
Filed in . Read more about Cyanogen, Legal and OnePlus One.
