The HeiMi could cause a battle in the stores and the courts for Xiaomi

Little known phone manufacturer Tiancheng Technology have posted photos of their Heimi (black rice) phone which will launch in March next year. Not only will the low-cost phone battle the Xiaomi Hongmi in the stores we might also see a trademark battle in the courts.

Earlier this month Xiaomi’s Lei Jun took to Weibo after a celebratity joked he planned to launch a Heimi smartphone named after his son. Lei Jun told the celeb that his company, Xiaomi, already owned the Heimi name but were open to ideas. This caused a big of a stir online with some netizens striking out at Xiaomi for taking thins to seriously. Well there is another twist to the story.

Days after the Weibo postings a small phone manufacturer called Tiancheng Technology Co Ltd claimed that in fact they owned the Heimi name and registered it back in 2010. Not only this but their first phone to bear the name will go on sale in March 2014.

Photos of the phone show a design similar to the Green Orange Nx and soon to be launched Newman K18, and like those phones will use an 8-core MT6592 processor but at a Xiaomi Hongmi price tag!

So will Tiancheng Tech take Xiaomi to court? Will the black rice beat the red rice? Or will the Heimi phone be forgotten about by the time March rolls around?