Hytera hits out at Motorola for adding copyright claim to lawsuit
China-based radio systems manufacturer Hytera said yesterday that it will oppose a motion from Motorola Solutions seeking to add a copyright infringement claim to a previous trade secrets complaint.
Yesterday, July 30, Motorola filed a motion to amend the complaint at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, seeking to add a count of “recently-discovered” copyright infringement.
The motion claimed that Hytera copied Motorola’s confidential and copyright-protected code in one of Hytera’s competing products.
“Specifically, discovery revealed that the source code for Hytera’s products contains a substantial amount of Motorola’s confidential and copyrighted source code,” the motion alleged.
Motorola initially filed a trade secrets complaint against Hytera at the district court in March last year.
In the complaint, the company alleged that Hytera’s analogue radio products “faced extinction” and that it wouldn’t be able to develop its own digital two-way radios in time to save its “ailing business”.
As a result, Motorola claimed that Hytera “embarked on an unlawful plot to surreptitiously take Motorola’s confidential and proprietary trade secrets” to build a competing product.
Mark Hacker, general counsel and chief administrative officer of Motorola Solutions, said yesterday: “We are confident the district court will agree that Hytera is a serial infringer and misappropriator of Motorola Solutions’ IP.”
However, Hytera did not take these accusations lightly and fired back at Motorola, claiming that the motion was an act of “desperation”.
“Motorola Solutions filed its motion almost a year after its attorneys were granted access to Hytera’s source code and after Hytera filed a summary judgment motion that would end the case,” Hytera said in a press release.
“Given the timing of the motion, coming just before an expected decision on Hytera’s motion, this latest act shows desperation, and Hytera will oppose it.”
Hytera also accused Motorola of changing its strategic focus from innovation to litigation.
The company added that Motorola is attempting to “strangle competition with a series of sham litigations”.
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