Delhi High Court lifts ban on the sale of OnePlus One in India

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Published 26 Dec 2014

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Last week, the Delhi High Court banned OnePlus from selling or importing the One in India because it infringed on the Micromax-Cyanogen Inc. deal. Earlier this week though, the court has removed the ban from OnePlus allowing it to import and sell the One in India immediately. 

The Delhi High court judges remarked that the case “shall be heard and decided afresh” under a new Judge on January 7, 2015. The existing judges also asked Cyanogen Inc. and OnePlus to file their written statements on the issue within two weeks from now.

In its order, the court states that it “would not be a case to grant an ad interim injunction, for the reason we were informed that mobile devices launched in India by Micromax are sold at around Rs 8,000 per piece and that by OnePlus at around Rs 22,000 per piece. The consumer of one product is mid-segment and of the other is high-end and thus prima-facie neither competes nor eats into territory of other.”

Cyanogen has a non-exclusive agreement with the OnePlus that allows the latter to use its software and trademark across 16 different regions of the world, including India and excluding China. However, the former signed up an agreement with Micromax in India that granted it exclusive right to use Cyanogen’s OS in one of the fastest growing smartphone market in the world — which legally disallowed OnePlus to ship the One with Cyanogen OS in India.

Additionally, the Delhi High Court also noted that a “proper debate needs to take place at the judicial” level to discuss the similarities and dissimilarities between the software being shipped on both devices and the agreement between Cyanogen and Micromax.