The Delhi High Court has lifted the ban on the sale of the OnePlus One in India, which was earlier ordered on December 16 by a single judge. Setting aside the single judge's order, Justice Pradeep Nandrajog found that neither companies compete in the same price category, thereby allowing the sale of the OnePlus One in India.
The High Court, which referred to Cyanogen Inc. as the "villian" in a lighter vein, asked Shenzen OnePlus Technology Co Ltd and Cyanogen Inc. to file their replies on Micromax's application for interim stay.
In view of the facts noted by us herein-above, it would not be a case to grant an ad-interim injunction, for the reason we were informed that mobile devices launched in India by Micromax are sold at around Rs 8,000 per piece and that by OnePlus at around Rs 22,000 per piece. The consumer of one product is mid-segment and of the other is high-end and thus prima-facie neither competes nor eats into territory of other. We dispose of the appeal setting aside the impugned order dated December 16, 2014, simultaneously restoring with a direction that within two weeks from today reply to application as also the written statement shall be filed not only by OnePlus but even by Cyanogen.
The court also observed that a proper debate on all the issues related to the software and the terms of agreements in question needs to take place before the single judge .
Earlier this month, Micromax claimed that it had exclusive rights to sell Cyanogen OS based smartphones in India, and filed a complaint with Delhi High Court, which led to the temporary ban on the sale of OnePlus One in India. Later, OnePlus claimed that they hold non-exclusive rights for the use of Cyanogen OS and that the version of Cyanogen OS, which is installed on the One is different from that of the software installed on the Yu Yureka from Micromax.
In the meanwhile, OnePlus has announced that it will ship its own software on the One starting February 2015. It is already developing the Android 5.0 Lollipop based ROM for the OnePlus One and the software is currently in Beta state. The company will offer the beta version of software to enthusiasts very soon.
