Coolpad Demands Halting Sale of Mi MIX 2 and more Xiaomi Models Citing Patent Violation

Coolpad, a smartphone manufacturer and integrated wireless data solutions provider, announced that its unit has sued three group firms of Xiaomi for several patent Infringements. Coolpad said in a statement that its subsidiary, Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific (Shenzhen) Company Limited has filed a lawsuit against Xiaomi Telecom Technology, Xiaomi Technology, and Xiaomi Factory, in a court in Jiangsu province for using its patents without authorization.

Yulong demanded that the Xiaomi companies should immediately stop production or selling some of its smartphone models which include the Xiaomi 6, Xiaomi Max2, Xiaomi Note3, Xiaomi 5X, Redmi Note4X and Mi MIX 2. Yulong had filed a similar legal case against Xiaomi in a Shenzhen court in January 2018 as well. The patents involved in this lawsuit are systematic interactions or UI type patents. They all involve basic communication, display and interactive functions of mobile phones, and are difficult to circumvent or replace.

"It is because the IP (intellectual property) protection environment in China has improved that Coolpad launched the lawsuit in January this year," Coolpad's global chief patent officer Nancy Zhang told a press conference on Friday. Coolpad has alleged that Xiaomi violated its patented multi-SIM card design and other technology related to user interface. It demanded that Xiaomi compensate it for losses due to the alleged infringement.

“On 12 January this year, Yulong Computer Communication Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited submitted a lawsuit request to Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court and was accepted on 25 January, 2018,” Global Chief Intellectual Property Officer of Coolpad Group, Nancy Zhang, said. ”Since 2014, Coolpad has repeatedly sent warning letters to Xiaomi, stating that the mobile phone it sold was suspected of infringing on Coolpad’s patent rights and proposed friendly negotiation, but did not receive a response. In desperation, Coolpad could only seek redress through legal channels."

Coolpad Group CEO Jiang Chao said, “If cumulative achievements of thousands of R&D engineers’ working from day to night for 25 years, are arbitrarily plagiarized and not pursued, we should reflect on our tolerance and this will ultimately harm innovation in the entire nation and the future generations."

Syed Tajuddin, CEO, Coolpad India, said, “It’s very important to safeguard your inventions and make sure no one use them for any commercial purpose without permission. As we already have over 13,000 patent applications globally and out of them 2,000 has been already authorized, we are looking forward do whatever it needs to make sure they are not infringed. We have been cooperative right from the start in the cases but it didn’t work and we have to file lawsuits to legally stop competing brands from using technology that has been patented after relentless hard work of our R&D teams. We continue to work in a very cooperative manner to work out the best possible solutions to resolve this case with Xioami.”