“China’s rising tech star Xiaomi has hit a snag in its plan to challenge Apple and Samsung,” Samuel Gibbs reports for The Guardian. “Its expansion into the fast growing Indian smartphone market has been halted by a patent dispute.”
“The Delhi High Court has ordered Xiaomi and its retail partner Flipkart to stop sales in India until 5 February, after Swedish telecoms company Ericsson filed a patent infringement suit against the Chinese manufacturer,” Gibbs reports. “Xiaomi is ‘restrained from manufacturing, assembling, importing, selling or advertising’ its smartphones in India according to court documents released to the Economic Times. Indian customs have been ordered to block the import of smartphones or other devices that potentially infringe on Ericsson patents until further notice.”
“The case will see a further hearing in February and could open Xiaomi up to additional patent disputes as it attempts to expand beyond China. It is the first patent challenge faced by the company, which has been criticised for its mimicry of rival products, and is described as ‘China’s Apple’ by industry watchers,” Gibbs reports. “Apple’s chief designer Jony Ive also recently hit out at Xiaomi’s alleged copying, dismissing suggestions of flattery saying ‘I think it is really straightforward. It is theft and it is lazy. I don’t think it is OK at all.'”
“But Xiaomi has made efforts to be more appealing to the west, hiring key executives from Google, including the outspoken Brazilian vice president of Android, Hugo Barra, who became Xiaomi’s head of international sales,” Gibbs reports. “‘Our designers, our engineers, are inspired by great products and by great design out there. And frankly who in today’s world isn’t?’ Barra said.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Who in today’s world isn’t copying Apple? Obviously no one:
Another phone company that likes to lead by following.
I love how simply copying, after someone else has done the heavy lifting, seems to be perfectly okay these days, as least to the thieves & slavish copiers. Then Apple, the fount of all smart phone design goodness, gets hit with disingenuous copying complaints! It’s a topsy-turvy world.
Related Memes:
“The quick buck”
“Grab the short-term profits; Ignore the long-term”
“Parasitism is quick and easy; Inventing is not”
AKA: Self-Destruction turned outward into the destruction of others.
Now that it has become a Chinese national strategy to ‘buy’ patents then sue non-Chinese technology companies…
It’s a GREAT idea for technology companies to sue the ripoff Chinese companies FIRST. Letting them get away with plagiarism and bullshit Chinese ‘patenting’ of already existing technology is not in any company’s best interest.
China: Criminal Nation, living up to its reputation.
For the few Chinese companies that DARE to not follow the herd and plagiarize: INVENT ON! I know you’re there and I support your work! You are the real future.
human beings ….sheesh