Schaumburg company denies it stole Motorola secrets

A small Schaumburg software firm sued earlier this week by electronics giant Motorola fired back Thursday, saying the accusations against it do not compute.

"We - are adamant that the allegations contained in the lawsuit brought by Motorola as they relate to Lemko are completely false," said Faye Vorrick, vice president of business operations for Lemko Corp.

Motorola accused Lemko of being the beneficiary of stolen trade secrets taken by several former Motorola employees, some of whom also worked for Lemko, the Motorola suit alleges.

One of the former Motorola employees, Hanjuan Jin of Schaumburg, has been charged criminally with theft of trade secrets after being authorities said he was caught at O'Hare International Airport trying to board a plane to China with hundreds of Motorola documents and $30,000 in cash, her indictment charges. Jin has pleaded not guilty.

Motorola's federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday, went a step further, saying Jin and three other former Motorola employees, Xiaohua Wu of Kildeer, Xuefeng Bai of Buffalo Grove and Xiaohong Sheng of Vernon Hills, took trade secrets for the benefit of Lemko. The suit accuses Wu of giving her husband, Shaowei Pan of Kildeer, some of the secrets. Pan is the chief technology officer of Lemko.

The suit alleges that Sheng, a former Lemko employee, secretly continued to work at Lemko even after being hired by Motorola.

"Over the past few years, Lemko has had an excellent relationship with Motorola," said Vorrick, reading from a prepared statement. "We have worked closely with them on several occasions, all under signed nondisclosure agreements toward delivering joint solutions. Lemko has not taken, copied, used or disclosed any confidential information or trade secrets at any time."