Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar, ELP lawyers secure injunction for Micromax against OnePlus sales in India

The Delhi High Court yesterday granted Micromax Informatics Limited (Micromax) an interim injunction against Chinese mobile phone company Shenzhen OnePlus Technology Co (OnePlus). The prayer for interim injunction was made in view of Micromax’s launch of its YU phone on December 20. Effectively, OnePlus will be restrained from marketing, selling and shipping its mobile phones in India. However, the Single Bench of Justice Manmohan Singh held that OnePlus would be allowed to dispose of its stock lying in the market..Micromax was represented by Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar along with advocates Rohan Shah, Jyoti Pawar, Kirat Singh Nagra and Kartik Yadav from Economic Laws Practice. OnePlus was represented by Senior Advocate Sudhir Chandra and advocates Nishchal Anand and Aman Taneja. Senior Advocate Jayant Bhushan and MS Ananth appeared for Cyanogen..Micromax and US-based operating system maker Cyanogen had entered into an agreement termed as the Ambient Services and Application Distributions Agreement, effective from September 26, 2014, by which Micromax was granted exclusive rights to use Cyanogen’s OS in India. Cyanogen had also undertaken not to collaborate directly with another manufacturer. OnePlus entered into the Indian market by launching its OnePlus One handsets on December 2, 2014. The handsets were using Cyanogen’s operating system software, for which Micromax had exclusive rights..OnePlus, prior to the present suit, had filed a suit for injunction against Micromax and Cyanogen on the basis of a purported Trademark License Agreement, for restraining the defendants from instituting proceedings against OnePlus in India. OnePlus believed that this agreement gave it the right to use Cyanogen’s OS in India. But, the Court, on perusal of the provisions of the agreement held,.“…it is clear that no action against Cyanogen in India is maintainable in view of settled law as there exists an agreement containing exclusive jurisdiction clause…The plea of OnePlus which seeks to restrain Micromax to exercise its right as an exclusive licensee is neither available to OnePlus under the Agreement, being a limited non-exclusive licencee from Cyanogen nor the same is enforceable in the courts in India.”.Therefore, it was held that the exclusivity agreement between Micromax and Cyanogen would outweigh the non-exclusive trademark agreement between OnePlus and Cyanogen..The Court also observed that Cyanogen had changed its stance from time to time in various press releases and statements made in blogs. It held,.“…it appears that the right of Micromax to use the trademark and OS is an exclusive one at least for India and the said fact is time and again admitted by Cyanogen though sometimes for business reasons, Cyanogen also took contrary stand in favour of OnePlus. The last word emanating from Cyanogen maintains the position that there exists exclusivity of relationship with Micromax.”.The Court concluded by saying,.“In case, the said interim orders are not passed, Micromax would suffer irreparable loss and injury. The balance of convenience also lies in favour of the plaintiff…defendant 1 (OnePlus) is restrained from shipping any stock to India bearing the mark Cyanogen from today.”.Earlier, the Delhi High Court lifted the ban on Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which was banned from selling and importing phones in India. Xiaomi is now allowed to sell smartphones powered by Qualcomm chipsets till January 8 in India..Image taken from here.