Opinion: Is the ban on Xiaomi selling phones in India, a bit too harsh?

Xiaomi today confirmed that they have received the Delhi High Court order for suspension of sales in India for infringing on Ericsson's Standard Essential Patents. Therefore, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer will be suspending sales in India "until further notice."

As the story goes, Ericsson has claimed that Xiaomi is infringing upon eight of its essential patents related to 3G, EDGE, and AMR (adaptive multi-rate) technologies. Therefore, the Delhi High Court has ordered Xiaomi to cease phone sales and imports in India until February. Only after then, the final decision on the matter will be made.

This is really bad timing for Xiaomi, considering they have already sold abour 800,000 devices since their entry to India in July'2014. Flipkart too has removed all Xiaomi products from their site.

Ericsson vs Micromax

Ericsson previously sued Micromax for Rs. 100 crores regarding wireless technology patents. At that time too Ericsson was able to make Micromax pay 1.25% to 2% of all sales of their smartphones as royalty. The court order further added that both should work on a license agreement in the interim.

Although we haven't heard much about it on this front, but it seems that implementation of patents and licenses have become a bit lax.

What do you think?

Ericsson surely has a right to sue Xiaomi, if they think that their rights are being infringed upon without proper licensing. But is an outright ban a solution to the grander issue at hand?

Although there is no legal defense or precedent I am citing here, but from a consumer's point of view, we are probably being deprived of some good gifting options this festive season or even somebody's first smartphone.

Voice your opinions in the comments section.