It has been a bad month for phones in India, especially the Chinese ones which have been selling like hot cakes.
After the Xiaomi phones which were banned as a result of patent infringement issues with Ericsson, the high end phones manufactured by OnePlus, are the latest to be banned in the Country.
The order comes from the Delhi High Court, as a result of Micromax’s complaint, which stated that the OnePlus phones launched in India on December 2nd, breached the agreement between Micromax and Cyanogen Inc, which allows the former exclusive right’s to sell phones with the latter’s customized Android Operating system.
The Court upon hearing the case, banned OnePlus from selling, advertising and shipping it’s phones running on Cyanogenmod, in India. However, the judge permitted the company to continue selling it’s phones on Amazon India, to clear it’s current stocks.
OnePlus, in its defence said it had signed an agreement with Cyanogen Inc., in February, which allowed it to use Cyanogen’s software and it’s trademark Gloablly except in Mainland China, and that Cyanogen had informed them about the termination of said agreement, only about 15 days before the OnePlus One was launched in India.
Cyanogen said that its agreement with Micromax grants the Indian manufacturer exclusive rights in South Asia, and that it supersedes all prior agreements.The court said that OnePlus may sue Cyanogen for breaching their agreement, but it can do so only in accordance with the Laws of the State of California, as the agreement between the two mentions, so it cannot sue them in India.
So, OnePlus will have no choice but to ship phones with their own custom OS, to India. Earlier this month, Cyanogen announced that it would provide updates for the Global OnePlus One phones sold in India, only to later announce that it will not update the OnePlus phones sold in India.
This fiasco could well see OnePlus dropping Cyanogenmod from their devices sold in the rest of the World, and honestly, who can blame them if they do?
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