HFCL, a leading telecom equipment maker in India, has responded to the infringement claims made by Sterlite Technologies.
HFCL has described the claim baseless. HFCL said the claim is based on misleading information given by STL for registration of impugned Patent. HFCL said that the product in question is being manufactured and used globally by a number of organizations for more than last 15 years and patent claims made by STL have no veracity.

HFCL said STL’s application on a similar patent was rejected by the European Union. HFCL said it has been manufacturing the multi-tube Micro Cable since 2014 as per customer specifications much before the date of application of patent by STL and confirms that there is no infringement of the impugned Patent.

HFCL said it is a more than ​30-year-old trusted manufacturer of various types of optical fibre cables and supplies its products to some of the largest Communications Service Provider’s (CSP) worldwide. Along with its range of in-house researched & developed products, HFCL also manufactures customized and standard specification products for its customers.

“STL’s claim holds no-merit and it has more than defense to present the same in the court to vacate the ex-parte interim restrain order. We have not only prayed for the vacation of the said ex-parte interim restrain order in court but also for rejecting the STL’s infringement claims. We will protect our interest from any such future claims arising out of misleading information,” HFCL spokesperson said.

HFCL said the sale of impugned product has very little contribution to the overall market share of OFC that the company has in India and abroad.