Motorola Solutions charges Chinese company with stealing patents, secrets
Motorola Solutions Inc., said it filed two lawsuits accusing a Chinese-based company of stealing its patented technology and stealing trade secrets for its famous two-way radios and other equipment.
Motorola Solutions, which has more than 4,000 U.S. patents including the patents at issue in the lawsuits, filed the complaints Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. The suits allege Hytera Communications Corp. of infringing on patents owned by Motorola Solutions and using Motorola's trade secrets after luring away three of its employees. "After an internal investigation, we learned that this wasn't accidental," said Motorola Solutions General Counsel Mark Hacker. "In fact, it was an intentional scheme that Hytera deployed to steal our technology and claim it as its own."
Hytera, which also has offices in Florida and California, did not immediately return calls for comment Thursday.
The lawsuits say that three Motorola Solutions employees were lured away to work for Hytera. The three senior engineers were hired in 2008 by Hytera and currently hold senior positions there. They are Gee Siong Kok, who formerly served as senior engineering manager at Motorola, and now serves as senior vice president and terminal chief at Hytera; Samuel Chia, who served as senior engineer and engineering section manager at Motorola, and now serves as the director of software engineering at Hytera; and Yih Tzye Kok, who served as a senior engineer at Motorola, now serving as sales director at Hytera, according to court documents.
Motorola Solutions' headquarters was still in Schaumburg at the time of the alleged theft. The company has since moved its headquarters to Chicago, but still retains offices in Schaumburg. The three employees mentioned in the lawsuits worked in Malaysia but reported to executives in Schaumburg at that time.
Motorola Solutions has not taken any action directly against the three former employees and Hacker declined to say if that is a possibility.
While the cases do not seek a financial settlement, Hacker said Motorola Solutions wants to stop Hytera from using Motorola's technology and infringing on those patents.
"We cannot sit back and let Hytera steal our trade secrets and patents," he said.