Motorola Solutions sues Hytera Communications for using stolen patents, trade secrets

Editor's Note: This article was updated at 11:25 a.m. EST on March 15 with a statement from Hytera Communications.

Motorola Solutions today filed lawsuits alleging that Hytera Communications' digital mobile radio (DMR) equipment and systems that leverage Motorola Solutions patents and trade secrets that were taken from the radio giant by three engineers who left the company to join Hytera Communications.

While some intellectual-property lawsuits involve disputes over the creation and use of technology developed along parallel tracks by different entities, the circumstances of Hytera Communications’ use of Motorola Solutions’ patents and trade secrets are much more “brazen,” according to Mark Hacker, Motorola Solutions’ general counsel and chief administrative officer.

“This isn’t coincidental infringement of a patent,” Hacker said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “This is part of a deliberate scheme to steal and copy our technology.”

According to the trade-secrets lawsuit, Hytera Communications infringed on several features associated with Motorola Solutions’ popular MOTOTRBO line of digital radios:

• Voice-Operated Transmission (VOX);
• Telemetry;
• Dynamic Mixed Mode (DMM)  priority scan;
• Location-based services;
• GPS Revert Channel;
• Digital Telephone Patch (DTP); and
• Digital emergency (“Man Down”) and “Lone Worker” capabilities.

These technology features were implemented in Hytera Communications’ DMR products, which were developed “at a very quick pace” after Hytera—a company that previously manufactured only analog radios that “were quickly becoming ‘obsolete’”—began hiring engineers who had resigned from Motorola Solutions in 2008, according to the lawsuit. At the heart of Hytera’s digital technology was improperly obtained intellectual property that was developed and funded by Motorola Solutions, the litigation alleges.

“Motorola has been building its radios and its reputation for almost a century, and Hytera tried to hijack both in just a few months—and continues to do so to this day,” according to the lawsuit.

A day after the filing, Hytera Communications provided the following statement about the legal action taken by Motorola Solutions:

"We have read Motorola Solutions' news release published on its company website and are aware of its complaint," according to the Hytera statement. "Hytera's policy is not to comment on cases that are presently before a court.

"As a global company headquarterd in Shenzhen, China, Hytera upholds a high ethical standard for business and strictly complies with the laws and regulations in the markets where we operate. Hytera firmly believes that its business practices and operations will be fully vindicated. Hytera aspires to, and will continue to, be the trusted partner for our customers and a respectful global corporate citizen."

Hytera Communications acquired the intellectual property after hiring three engineers that had resigned from Motorola Solutions, according to the lawsuit. All three of the engineers cited in the case—Samuel Chia, Y.T Kok and G.S. Kok—continue to work at Hytera Communication in senior-level positions today, according to a Motorola Solutions press release.

“In the period leading up to their resignations, through a series of serious misrepresentations and carefully planned illegal acts, these engineers maliciously accessed, downloaded and transferred more than 7,000 highly confidential files related to Motorola Solutions’ technologies, including confidential technical, marketing, sales, legal and other types of trade secret materials,” according to the Motorola Solutions press release.

“Subsequently, Hytera began illegally manufacturing and marketing a line of products and technologies containing technologies invented, designed, developed and in some cases patented by Motorola Solutions.”