A federal jury in Chicago has awarded Motorola Solutions $764.6 million in the company’s trade secrets battle against China-based Hytera Communications Corp. The jury found that Hytera infringed copyrights and misappropriated trade secrets in developing its digital two-way radios. The jury deliberated for more than two hours following a three-month trial.
Motorola argued that Hytera lured its former engineers and tapped into thousands of its proprietary documents, reports Bloomberg. Motorola also claimed that Hytera’s two-way radios, base stations, repeaters and dispatch systems infringed seven patents owned by Motorola and that Hytera’s “redesigned” i-Series products infringed four of those patents.
The jury gave Motorola everything it asked for, including $345.76 million in compensatory damages and $418.8 million in exemplary damages.
The Chinese firm claimed it developed its two-way radios on its own but admitted hiring former Motorola engineers was a mistake, reports Bloomberg. Hytera alleged Motorola of using its market power to drive out competitors. Motorola is facing an anti-trust case, which will also be heard in Chicago but by a different judge.
