Hytera criminal trial scheduled to begin Oct. 1

A criminal trial in a case against Hytera Communications for an alleged conspiracy to steal Motorola Solutions’ DMR trade secrets is scheduled to begin on Oct. 1, according to information released last week by a federal judge in Illinois.

District Court Judge John Tharp of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois reset the start of the criminal trial by a day—from the Sept. 30 date announced on Feb. 2—“to accommodate the Jury Department’s schedule,” according to a minute entry issued on Feb. 12. This trial is the result of U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) indictments against China-based Hytera Communications and seven individuals—all former Hytera employees—for allegedly conspiring to steal DMR trade secrets from the company then known simply as Motorola.

Starting the Hytera Communications criminal trial on Oct. 1 marks the third time the scheduled beginning of the trial has been set during the past 14 months, although this most recent change represents an alteration of only one day. In January 2023, Tharp scheduled the start of the trial for Feb. 5, 2024, but that date was altered at the request of the DoJ, which cited complications associated with information in briefs filed by Hytera during latter months of 2023. Hytera asked that the trial not begin prior to Sept. 30.

On Feb. 2, Tharp reset the scheduled start of the trial to Sept. 30, noting in the minute entry that there would be “(NO FURTHER EXTENSIONS absent emergency circumstances)” [Editor’s note: capitalization mirrors the appearance in the court document]. Tharp then made the one-day change to Oct. 1 last week.

At issue in the criminal trial is the DoJ’s May 2021 criminal indictment—one that was not disclosed publicly until February 2022—of Hytera Communications regarding an alleged conspiracy between the company and seven former employees to steal DMR trade secrets from Motorola Solutions. Motorola Solutions and Hytera Communications have been engaged in civil litigations since March 2017 that have been based on similar allegations.

As part of the Hytera criminal-conspiracy case, the DoJ also indicted seven individuals who were employed by Hytera Communications in 2008 immediately after working in the Malaysia facility for Motorola (the company had not yet been renamed Motorola Solutions). All seven individuals have been charged with coordinating and executing the theft of thousands of Motorola documents and providing them to Hytera, which was struggling to build DMR products at the time, according to court documents.

In November 2022, Gee Siong (G.S.) Kok—Hytera Communications’ former director of research and development, as well as former member of the company’s board of director—pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to steal trade secrets.

G.S. Kok’s plea agreement claims that took these criminal actions at the behest of a top Hytera executive. This “Executive 1” is not identified in the plea agreement, but it is believed to be Hytera Communications Chairman and founder Qingzhou Chen, based on information in other legal documents.

Hytera Communications issued a statement that the company “vigorously disputes that its executives knew of or were involved in any theft of trade secrets from Motorola Solutions, and Hytera is not aware of Hytera executive having been charged with stealing Motorola’s trade secret—only former Motorola employees such as G.S. Kok.”

G.S. Kok was extradited to the U.S. in the fall of 2022.

Six other former Hytera employees—Yih Tzye (YT) Kok, Samuel Chia Han Siong (Chia), Phaik ee Ooi (Ooi), Wong Kiat Hoe (Wong), Yu Kok Hoong (Hoong) and Chua Siew Wei (Chua)—also were charged in the DoJ’s indictment for participating in the alleged conspiracy.

It should be noted that this criminal trial is separate from the lengthy civil litigation between Hytera Communications and Motorola Solutions that began in March 2017, although the facts associated with the cases include considerable overlap.

In the civil lawsuit, a federal district court jury unanimously found Hytera Communications guilty and ordered to pay Motorola Solutions more than $600 million, after adjustments. That case was appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments on the matter in December 2023. No decision has been announced in the appeal of the civil dispute.