USITC agrees to review Motorola dispute after Hytera petition
Hytera received good news this week when the US International Trade Commission (ITC) agreed to review in-part a final initial determination that had gone in favour of Motorola Solutions, amid a global war between the two companies.
In July, the ITC upheld allegations of patent infringement against radio manufacturer Hytera in an initial determination.
Motorola had initially accused Hytera of infringing seven US patents which cover two-way radio equipment systems and related software. It later withdrew three of the patents asserted against Hytera.
Administrative Law Judge Mary Joan McNamara determined that a number of claims in the four patents asserted by Motorola are valid and have been infringed by Hytera.
However, she determined that none of Motorola’s products uses one of the four patents asserted, meaning that Motorola failed to meet the legal requirement of showing a “technical domestic industry” on that patent.
McNamara then recommended that an exclusion order be made to prevent the importation of products infringing the three remaining patents.
But in July, Hytera filed a petition requesting review of the determination and claiming that its products don’t infringe Motorola’s patents.
On Tuesday, September 4, the ITC issued its notice of review. While a determination was scheduled to be issued by November 6 this year, this has now been postponed until November 16.
According to Hytera, the ITC will review an order which precluded Hytera from presenting its licensing defence and an order striking some of Hytera’s expert testimony from the record.
During proceedings, Hytera produced documents and source code related to several new designs. The Chinese company has also asked the ITC to affirm that these new products aren’t infringing.
Tom Wineland, vice president of Hytera Communications America (West), said: “We are particularly pleased at the forecast scope of the review, which includes the ITC’s reviewing why Motorola would have asserted patents as infringed that Hytera had previously licensed from Motorola on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.”
In July, Motorola secured a victory over Hytera in Germany as the Regional Court of Mannheim granted an injunction against the radio company.
China-based Hytera confirmed that it would appeal against the decision and seek to invalidate the asserted patent.
A Motorola spokesperson said that the company was pleased that the ITC has indicated that it will not review numerous aspects of the determinations.
These include the findings that Hytera infringed all four of Motorola’s asserted patents and that each of those patents is valid, further supporting Motorola’s “allegations and rebuking Hytera for its unscrupulous and unlawful behaviour in wilfully infringing” the patents.
They added: “We are confident that the full ITC will uphold the exclusion and cease-and-desist orders recommended in the initial determination, including the two orders under review, in its final determination in November.”
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