Hytera continues to use Motorola's trade secrets, court finds

Motorola Solutions has voiced its support for a recent ruling from the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that determined Hytera Communications of Shenzhen, China, continues to use Motorola Solutions’ trade secrets in its digital mobile radio (DMR) H-Series products sold worldwide.

In February 2020, a jury found in favour of Motorola Solutions in its trade secret theft and copyright infringement case against Hytera, accepting that Hytera had stolen thousands of Motorola Solutions’ confidential documents and source code files. Motorola Solutions was awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages, with the outstanding balance owed currently over US$370 million — not including the copyright award, which is still being finalised. Hytera has paid Motorola Solutions over US$175 million in judgement and royalty payments to date, including US$69 million last month.

But despite Hytera’s claim to have redesigned its H-Series without Motorola Solutions’ intellectual property, the District Court found that Hytera’s H-Series products are substantially similar to Hytera’s previously adjudicated DMR radios and repeaters, with key quotes noting the following:

• “While Hytera publicly claimed during the H-Series’ US launch that the H-Series was redesigned ‘from the ground up’ ‘in a clean room’, Hytera did not ‘start from scratch’ in its redesign.”
• “Hytera left several Motorola trade secrets in place. Many of the changes Hytera did make were merely cosmetic.”
• “Hytera’s redesign process demonstrates that the H-Series was (like the products adjudicated at trial) built on the foundation of Motorola’s trade secrets.”
• “This ensured that Hytera could continue to profit off Motorola’s designs. These replacements of lines of code with functional equivalents did nothing to change the product’s reliance on Motorola’s trade secrets (which included the software architecture).”
  
  

The District Court has now ordered Hytera to pay Motorola Solutions royalties of more than US$59 million plus more than US$11 million in interest for Hytera’s worldwide sales of H-Series products through the first quarter of 2024. These amounts were calculated in accordance with the District Court’s July 2022 order requiring Hytera to pay Motorola Solutions royalties of US$80.32 per unit for Hytera radios and US$378.16 per unit for Hytera repeaters that utilise Motorola Solutions’ stolen trade secrets and copyrighted source code. The order also requires Hytera to pay these royalties going forward on its H-Series products sold worldwide, subsequent to the first quarter of 2024.

Additionally, the District Court held Hytera in civil contempt for failing to make court-mandated royalty payments to Motorola Solutions, marking the third time since 2023 that Hytera has been held in civil contempt for refusing to obey court orders.

“This significant ruling from the District Court demonstrates the continued brazen nature of Hytera’s illegal conduct and wilful disregard for the US judicial system,” said Greg Brown, Chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions. “Hytera’s H-Series design highlights the continued unlawful use of our trade secrets and copyrighted source code and Hytera’s inability to develop radios without stealing our technologies. We will relentlessly defend our intellectual property, holding Hytera accountable for its continued and ongoing illegal transgressions against our company.”