Did Ericsson, Micromax just begin patent wars in India?

Is the Ericsson Vs Micromax case the beginning of mobile patent wars in India?

Of course, this can be just a tip of the iceberg and other home-grown mobile manufacturers also have to fight it out with common essential patent holders like Ericsson, feel industry observers.

According to Cyber Media Research report for Q4 2012, Micromax and Karbonn (Indian handset manufacturers) were second and third behind Samsung in sales. Over 1 million phablets were sold in this quarter in India. While Samsung had a 20 pc share in sales, Micromax and Karbonn had over 15 pc and 8 pc respectively.

 

It may be noted here that the home-grown handset manufactures entered the smartphone bandwagon in 2012. Though they hardly own any technology patents, business desire fuelled by consumer preferences for smartphones, compelled them to introduce many new models that use patented wireless technologies.

Tarun Pathak, telecom analyst with CMR, points out that players like Micromax are bound to use patented technologies as they simply do not have technologies related GSM, EDGE or 3G which is a must for any smartphone. Ericsson has over 30,000 patented technologies in the field of wireless communication, he adds.

Micromax points out that Ericsson had filed a similar suit on Samsung in South Korea and that after it quit the tie-up with Sony its presence in mobile market was negligible due to which it was filing illogical cases. The case if goes in favour of Ericsson, other players Karbonn, Lava, Intex and Spice could be in trouble.

Global giants Apple, Samsung, HTC and Finland's Nokia have fought patent infringements in various parts of the world. But unlike Micromax, those companies were technology owners.