German court rules in favour of Hytera in Motorola patent infringement case

The Court of Appeals Düsseldorf has ruled in favour of Hytera Communications Corporation Limited and its subsidiary HMF Smart Solutions GmbH (HMF) in patent infringement proceedings initiated by Motorola Solutions (MSI) at the Regional Court Düsseldorf in 2017 and 2018. The Court of Appeals found that Hytera and HMF did not infringe the patent-in-suit.

On 20 April 2023 (court ref: I-2 U 78/18 and I-2 U 79/18), the Court of Appeals Düsseldorf modified the first instance verdicts of 20 November 2018 (court ref: 4b O 43/17 and 4b O 70/18) by the Regional Court Düsseldorf and dismissed MSI’s patent infringement complaint. MSI was also ordered to pay the costs of the court proceedings in the first and second instances, a decision preliminarily enforceable for Hytera and HMF.

In 2017, MSI filed a complaint alleging infringement of its European patent EP 2 342 852 B1 by Hytera’s Pseudo-Trunking/TDMA direct mode/TX-none radio functionality. The complaint was initially filed against HMF, but resulted in two parallel proceedings when Hytera joined as an intervener in the proceedings on the side of HMF and MSI extended its complaint against Hytera. In the first instance decisions, the Regional Court Düsseldorf found infringement of MSI’s patent. Upon appeal by Hytera and HMF, the Court of Appeals Düsseldorf found the patent-in-suit not infringed and dismissed MSI’s complaints.

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