Delhi High Court has asked domestic handset maker Micromax to pay a royalty that amounts up to 1% of the selling price of its devices to Ericsson for using the Swedish equipment maker's patents on technologies that are essential to manufacture the products.
The interim order holds until December 31, 2015, the deadline set by the court to conclude the trial.
Ericsson had argued that it has similar payment arrangements with many handset makers globally and to support the claim, it furnished at least 26 licence agreements. The court, after perusing the royalty rates contained in those agreements, arrived on this rate, which both parties agreed upon, according to the order.
The handset manufacturer has also made clear that it has little operations overseas and when it plans to expand to other markets, it will negotiate royalty rates separately with Ericsson under global guidelines.
Also Read: Future Micromax smartphones to come with CyanogenMod pre-installed?
A year ago, Ericsson had sued Micromax over patent infringement and moved to Delhi High Court, demanding Rs 100 crores in damages. This marks the arrival of patent wars on the Indian shores, with similar feuds between tech giants including Samsung, Apple, Google and Microsoft already going in courtrooms around the world.
