Case No. 04 of 2015. Case: Best IT World (India) Private Limited (iBall) Vs Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ) and Ors.. Competition Commision of India
| Case Number | Case No. 04 of 2015 |
| Counsel | For Appellant: Amit Sibal, Senior Advocate, Dev Robinson, Naval Satarawala Chopra, Manika Brar, Jogeshwar Mishra, Aman Singh Sethi, Joyjayanti Chatterjee, Tahir Siddiqui, Namit Suri, Advocates and Sunil B. Kedia |
| Judges | Ashok Chawla, Chairperson, S.L. Bunker, Sudhir Mital, Augustine Peter and M.S. Sahoo, Members |
| Issue | Competition Act, 2002 - Sections 19(1)(a), 26(1), 4, 48 |
| Citation | 2015 (131) SCL 392 (CCI) |
| Judgement Date | May 12, 2015 |
| Court | Competition Commision of India |
Order:
Under Section 26(1) of the Competition Act 2002
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The present information has been filed by M/s. Best IT World (India) Private Limited (hereinafter, the 'Informant') under section 19(1)(a) of the Competition Act, 2002 (hereinafter, the 'Act') against M/s. Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ) (hereinafter, the 'Opposite Party No. 1') and M/s. Ericsson India Private Limited (hereinafter, the 'Opposite Party No. 2') [collectively hereinafter, the 'Opposite Parties'/'Ericsson'] alleging, inter alia, contravention of the provisions of the section 4 of the Act in the matter.
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The Informant is stated to be an Indian IT & Electronics company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and is engaged in the business of import and distribution of computer peripherals, mobile handsets, tablets etc. The Informant started its business operations as a computer accessories supplier in 2001 under the brand name 'iBall' and entered into the mobile phone market in November 2010 and currently provides a wide assortment of mobile phones. The Opposite Party No. 1 is a company incorporated under the laws of Sweden and it offers services, software and infrastructure in 'Information and Communication Technology' for telecom operators and other industries including licensing of intellectual property ('IP') as well as networking equipments, mobile and fixed broadband, operations and business support solutions, cable TV, internet protocol television, video systems etc. The Opposite Party No. 2 is a 100% subsidiary of the Opposite Party No. 1 and is engaged in the business of manufacturing and sale of telecom equipment, network equipment, software and other services in India.
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As per the Informant, the Opposite Party No. 1 is one of the world's largest telecommunication companies with a global market share of 38% and also one of the largest holders of Standard Essential Patents ('SEPs') in the mobile phone and wireless industries with approximately 33,000 granted patents as of 2012, out of which 400 were granted in India.
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It is submitted that in November 2011 Ericsson issued a letter to the Informant, stating that they have reviewed the Informant's product portfolio and it believes that patents of Ericsson have been infringed, which were directly relevant to the Informant's past, present and future GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and/or WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) compliant products and requested for a meeting to discuss the issue. However, Ericsson did not specify any patents which were directly relevant to the Informant's products that were infringed. During the meeting, it was communicated to the Informant that some of its handset models were violating the patents of Ericsson and the Informant should enter into a global patent licensing arrangement ('GPLA') for all the patents...
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