Motorola Wins $765M Over Trade Secrets Theft by Rival Hytera
The jury found that China-based Hytera infringed copyrights and misappropriated Motorola trade secrets in developing its digital two-way radios.
CHICAGO — A federal jury in Chicago has awarded Motorola Solutions $764.6 million in the company’s trade secrets battle against China-based Hytera Communications Corp.
The jury found that Hytera infringed copyrights and misappropriated trade secrets in developing its digital two-way radios, reports Law 360. The jury deliberated for more than two hours following a three-month trial.
Motorola argued that Hytera lured its former engineers and tapped into thousands of its proprietary documents, reports Bloomberg. Motorola also claimed that Hytera’s two-way radios, base stations, repeaters and dispatch systems infringed seven patents owned by Motorola and that Hytera’s “redesigned” i-Series products infringed four of those patents.
The jury gave Motorola everything it asked for, including $345.76 million in compensatory damages and $418.8 million in exemplary damages.
The Chinese firm claimed it developed its two-way radios on its own but admitted hiring former Motorola engineers was a mistake, reports Bloomberg. Hytera alleged Motorola of using its market power to drive out competitors. Motorola is facing an anti-trust case, which will also be heard in Chicago but by a different judge.
The case is the latest example of an American company accusing a Chinese firm of luring away employees and using pilfered know-how to develop new products. The overarching goal, American officials contend, is to help the Asian nation’s efforts to transform from the world’s factory to an economic superpower.
The verdict is “a tremendous victory for Motorola and a clear repudiation of the illegal and anti-competitive tactics employed by Hytera over the last decade,” Motorola said in a statement.
(This article first appeared in SSI sister publication campussafetymagazine.com.)
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From where I sat I saw two sharks: a big one and a smaller one; the big shark finally got annoyed and went after the smaller. Of course there were infractions by Hytera but , from where I sat, the case was not nearly as clear cut and, in my opinion of course, the dollar amounts substantially inflated. There were and are too many questiondignifiable concerns which need to be explored – not only for this case but for entire spectrum of the technology.