Motorola Solutions and Huawei Technologies are to settle a long-standing trade secrets dispute that clears the way for a sale of one of Motorola’s business units to Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN).
Motorola will pay an undisclosed fee to Huawei as part of the settlement that had delayed the $975 million sale. Huawei had said that as a result of their 11-year old relationship, Motorola had secured information relating to future product plans and technical specifications. Motorola in turn filed a suit against Huawei that alleged the company had stolen trade secrets from former employees passed information to Huawei’s founder.
Under the terms of the agreement Motorola has agreed to withdraw its claims against Huawei and will dismiss, with prejudice, Huawei as a defendant in a separate trades secrets case due to be heard in a Chicago federal district court.
For its part the Chinese firm has agreed to withdraw its own Chicago lawsuit against Motorola and NSN. Motorola will pay an undisclosed fee to Huawei in return for NSN being allowed to receive confidential information that will allow it to service networks deployed by Motorola using Huawei’s products and technologies.
“We regret that these disputes have occurred between our two companies. Motorola Solutions values the long-standing relationship we have had with Huawei. After reviewing the facts, we decided to resolve these matters and return to our traditional relationship of confidence and trust. I am pleased that we can again focus on having a cooperative and productive relationship,” said Greg Brown, President & CEO of Motorola Solutions.
“Throughout our decade long relationship with Motorola Solutions, Huawei has contributed cutting edge technology to Motorola Solutions for use around the globe. Huawei provided Motorola’s experts and counsel with source code and millions of documents. Huawei acted properly and above board at all times and developed its products independently and without the use of any Motorola trade secrets,” said Guo Ping, vice chairman of the board and executive vice president of Huawei.
Ping added that with the resolution of the case the company could move forward in its efforts to provide innovative solutions to its customers.
