On a plea registered by electronics engineer Somasundaram Ramkumar, Madras High Court has banned mobile phone makers including Samsung, Mirc Electronics and Spice Mobile and various retailers such as Ebay India and Rediff.com from making or selling cell phones having multiple SIM holding.

Mr. Ramkumar, who claims to hold patented rights over the technology used to create such handsets, had accused few handset manufacturers and retailers of breaching his patent for multiple SIM handsets.

The 36-year-old electronics engineer holds Indian patent (No.214388) for plurality of SIM cards in a single mobile phone in addition to plurality of bluetooth devices in headphone and earphone jacks.
 
On the basis of the plea filed, Ramkumar's lawyer D Ferdinand said, “Justice Jaypaul has issued an injunction whereby Samsung Electronics, Mirc Electronics and Spice Mobile were restrained from manufacturing multiple SIM holding mobile phones.”

The case will be heard on April 13, 2009.

In view of the Intellectual Property Rights (Imported Goods) Enforcement Rules 2007 to defend the petitioner’s legal rights, Chennai custom’s functionaries in different cities have already detained import consignments of mobile phones with multiple SIM cards.

On hearing the development, Ramkumar said, “This is my first step in establishing my right as a patent holder.”