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It was just a few weeks ago when Bhavish Aggarwal, with strong pride, announced the launch of Ola Maps in an attempt to boycott what he termed as 'Western Apps' like Google Maps.
Soon after the launch, a pricing battle began between Google and Ola Krutrim, with Aggarwal first announcing free access to Ola Maps on Krutrim for Indian developers.
In response, Google announced price reductions with discounts up to 70% and payment acceptance in Indian Rupees (INR).
Aggarwal then also announced significant price reductions and offered two years of free access to Ola Maps. His move received a lot of appreciation from Indian developers and netizens alike.
However, a recent development has put the authenticity of Ola Maps in question. MapMyIndia has reportedly sent a legal notice to Ola Electric, accusing it of copying their data to build Ola Maps.
According to Forbes India, MapMyIndia alleges that the EV maker breached their licensing agreement, which was signed in 2022, when Ola Electric partnered with MapMyIndia to provide navigation services for the S1 Pro electric scooter. Ola Cabs first partnered with MapMyIndia through a multi-year licence to seek access to its mapping data.
The agreement reportedly prohibited Ola from combining the licensed product with any other competing product, engaging in reverse engineering, or attempting to extract or copy the source code from any API of the licensed product or related software.
The report said MapMyIndia claims that Ola cached and saved the data, and reverse engineered a licenced product.
Forbes India quoted a legal document sent to Ola Electric by CE Info Systems, which said, "You have duplicated our client’s API (application programming interface) and SDKs (software development kits) from proprietary sources belonging to our client to build OLA Maps. It is firmly stated that our client’s exclusive data has been copied/derived by you to further your illegal motive and for your unjust commercial gains."