Motorola's Arlington campus on hold as company deals with suit

A Chinese-based equipment maker sued Motorola Solutions on Monday, claiming the Schaumburg-based company plans to hand over its intellectual property to one of its competitors.

Shenzhen, China-based Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., a global provider of telecommunications network devices with offices in Rolling Meadows, aims to prevent Motorola from “illegally transferring” Huawei's intellectual property to Nokia Siemens Networks, which plans to soon take over Motorola's Arlington Heights campus. The case, which also cites Motorola Mobility and Nokia Siemens, was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

“We believe this lawsuit is without merit,” said Motorola Solutions spokesman Nick Sweers.

Nokia Siemens spokeswoman Johanna Vesala declined to comment.

But Huawei was adamant about its partnership with Motorola.

“That's like giving away the keys to our store,” said Huawei spokesman Bill Plummer about Motorola's deal with Nokia Siemens.

Huawei filed its suit just as Nokia Siemens seeks to complete its $1.2 billion acquisition of Motorola's wireless network business and take over Motorola's Arlington Heights campus.

Last October, the Daily Herald broke the news that Nokia Siemens was expected to own and fully occupy Motorola's campus in Arlington Heights by early 2011, after Nokia completed its acquisition of Motorola's wireless network infrastructure assets. That transition didn't happened in time for Motorola's split into two separate companies on Jan. 4.

“As previously stated, we are targeting to complete the sale of our Networks business to Nokia Siemens Networks in early 2011 following receipt of approval from China's antitrust authorities,” said Sweers.

The Arlington Heights campus was put on the block in early 2009 and Jones Lang LaSalle was hired by Motorola to market the buildings on Shur Drive near Dundee Road and Route 53. But the real estate market was depressed and few prospects jumped at the offer. Then last July, Nokia Siemens and Motorola said they had signed the $1.2 billion deal where Nokia Siemens would take over the wireless network infrastructure part of the business.

Since 2000, Huawei and Motorola have partnered in the radio access network and core network businesses, where Motorola has resold Huawei wireless network products to customers under the Motorola name, the case said.

Since the July announcement that Nokia Siemens purchased Motorola's wireless network business, Huawei has tried to ensure that Motorola does not transfer this confidential information to Nokia Siemens, Huawei said.

Motorola, however, has not responded with assurances that it will prevent disclosure of that information to Nokia Siemens. If Huawei's proprietary commercial property and information is transferred to a third party, Huawei will suffer irreparable commercial damage, the lawsuit said.