Xiaomi is one of the fastest growing China-based companies at the moment, and they’re aiming to enter additional markets in 2016. The US market is definitely one of Xiaomi’s goals, as some of their devices have already been certified by the FCC, and Xiaomi’s CEO has hinted that the company will enter the US market next year. Xiaomi is already selling their accessories in the US, but smartphones are still not available. As a side note, Xiaomi is expected to announce their new flagship smartphone at the beginning of next year, quite probably in January, so stay tuned for that.
That being said, a US-based company is already suing Xiaomi, even though that Chinese smartphone OEM is still not selling their devices in the country. What’s this all about? Well, a company called Blue Spike LLC has filed a suit against Xiaomi in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Blue Spike demands a jury trial saying that Xiaomi infringed against US patent 8,930,719 B2, which goes under the name ‘Data Protection Method and Device’. Now, Blue Spike says that Xiaomi used this patent illegally in the Mi 4, Mi 4 LTE, Mi 4i, Mi 4c, Mi Note Plus, Redmi 1S, Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, Redmi 2A and Redmi Note 2 smartphones. What’s even more interesting here, is the fact that Blue Spike also included Mi 5 and Mi 5 Plus in this list, two devices which haven’t even been announced yet. The Mi 5 is expected to arrive in January, as we’ve also mentioned, and the Mi 5 Plus is going to be a bigger variant of the Mi 5, if the rumors are to be believed.
This report is rather odd on its own, but in addition to all this, you might be interested in knowing that Blue Spike actually filed lawsuits against 45 different companies quite recently. So, what is Blue Spike? Well, according to the company, they’re into Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) software, systems and technology. Now, the Mi 5 is expected to be announced soon, and Blue Spike’s lawsuit comes right in time. Perhaps they’re guessing Xiaomi will be willing to settle in order to avoid any delays and bad press along the way. This is only a guess at this point, and could be far from the truth, but it sure looks like it. Either way, it will be interesting to see what happens next, stay tuned.