Motorola sues Huawei and several former employees for stealing wireless trade secrets

Man, if you thought the lawsuit action in the mobile space was crazy before, well, you ain't seen nothing yet -- Motorola just sued Huawei and over a dozen former employees for conspiring to steal its wireless trade secrets and other proprietary technology over a period of years starting in 2001. Yeah, it's crazy. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2008 against four former Motorola engineers and a company called Lemko, all of whom Motorola accused of conspiring to stealing trade secrets related to wireless technology. After years of discovery in the case, it appears that Motorola realized the conspiracy went much deeper than it originally thought, leading the company to file a new complaint on July 16th, in which it named Huawei and nine additional former employees, who allegedly schemed to steal plans for a 3G base station called the SC300.

According to the complaint, part of the scheme was ultimately blown up when one of the employees was arrested by Customs at O'Hare airport en route to China with $30,000 in cash and over 1,000 pages of documentation regarding Motorola's various communications networking tech, while another employee was caught buying Motorola phones in bulk and sending unlock codes and dump files to Lemko for reverse engineering purposes. Motorola also says that it doesn't yet know the exact relationship between Lemko, Huawei and some of the former employees because "file destruction software" was installed and run on computers before they were turned over as evidence, but the company claims that Huawei was aware it was receiving proprietary Motorola information the entire time it was in contact with the former employees. Yes, it's all very juicy -- we'll be watching this one closely.

[novel127 Posted Jul 21st 2010 11:20PM]

Huawei is the fastest growing telecom equipment company in the world, now world's 4th largest, and they're in the position to overtake cisco and nokia-siemen in the foreseeable future. That's why cisco and nokia alike play the dirty legal tricks on them. Just like Apple suing HTC. Even if they win the case, it's not going to slow down Huawei's growth.

[novel127 Posted Jul 21st 2010 11:33PM]

@novel127

Actaully I was wrong. Huawei was the 2nd largest telecom co in 2009, surpassing Nokia-Siemens. That's why they bought Motorola and started suing Huawei to try to slow down their growth in North America.

From tradingmarkets.com:
"Huawei pocketed USD 21.5 billion in revenue in 2009, surpassing Nokia Siemens as the No. 2 telecom equipment maker in the world for the first time. The Espoo-based company, which reported USD 17.6 billion in revenue for the entire 2009, has never stopped claiming itself as the second-biggest citing other statistics.

Nokia Siemens will possibly see its total sales revenue increase by USD 3.7 billion to USD 21.3 billion after the Motorola transaction, on a par with the USD 21.5 billion revenue posted by Huawei. "

[mondey Posted Jul 21st 2010 11:39PM]

I guess we now we know why the Indian Govt. has banned Huawei...

[novel127 Posted Jul 22nd 2010 12:10AM]

@mondey

LOL. Indian gov is a bunch of dumbass. They actually think they can win by resorting to trade protectism.

[shan sp Posted Jul 21st 2010 11:41PM]

thats surprising.around 2005 i met a chinese phone dealer at my place in malaysia.they were mentioning that the chinese company (china based) is in the position to buy over motorola..i thought he was fuckin kiddin with me.didnt know they were up to this.

[wanderer9 Posted Jul 21st 2010 11:41PM]

Chinese stealing information??? No, say it ain't so. Stop hiring Chinese people into highly sensitive areas if you don't want them to walk with your tech.

[novel127 Posted Jul 22nd 2010 12:22AM]

@(Unverified)

Stupid south korean. What's the name of that South Korean scientist who faked human clong breakthrough a few years ago?

[wagawaga Posted Jul 22nd 2010 1:14AM]

Huawei made almost $3B profit last year more than the $1.2B Motorola networking business that just recently sold to NSN.

Motorola is like a mosquito.

[korbas12 Posted Jul 22nd 2010 2:27AM]

@wagawaga How much of that did Huawei make by selling tech they stole from someone else?

[wagawaga Posted Jul 22nd 2010 4:05AM]

@korbas12

lol

- Huawei patent filings rank first in the world for 2008, 2nd for 2009
- Huawei LTE patents is in the top 3 of LTE patent holders worldwide
- Huawei winning innovation awards left & right for creating new technologies in the telecom field
- In 2010 Fast Company ranked Huawei the fifth most innovative company in the world
- Huawei contract sales for 2010 will be close to $40bn

[Droidum Posted Jul 22nd 2010 8:48AM]

@wagawaga BS... in case you don't know that mean's Bull Sh*t. Huawei doesn't report earnings and give their equipment away on many large deals. I would not be surprised if they lost $10 Billion last year and honestly it's probably more. They are simply trying to get a footprint and no-one is clammering to get their equipment... it's just that they give it away at an unbeatable price (A LOSS FOR THE LAYMEN) that companies with tight budgets take them up on the deal... Ask Verizon why they are not using Huawei and won't entertain a bid from the pack of thieves....

[Droidum Posted Jul 22nd 2010 8:50AM]

@korbas12 Huawei would not exist were it not for the technology they steal...

[Droidum Posted Jul 22nd 2010 8:58AM]

@wagawaga Crack Kills... You are propagating BS left and right.. Huawei doesn't rank first in anything but Intellectual Property Thievery and Corporate Espionage. Get your facts right and stop propagating this crap... the only thing Huawei has going for it is TDD... and that's because China Inc has forced the issue and is attempting to propagate it worldwide... I suspect Motorola feared suing China, I mean Huawei, up until now was for fear of not getting contracts in mainland China... and as it became apparent the contracts would never come and now that they have sold Networks, the concerns about suing is no longer. Unfortunately we have lost another American Icon and unless we wake up yesterday, this will propagate throughout our society...

[wagawaga Posted Jul 22nd 2010 11:14AM]

@Droidum

Please stop embarrassing yourself kid

Top PCT Applicants in 2009

1 PANASONIC CORPORATION
2 HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
3 ROBERT BOSCH GMBH DE
4 KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS
5 QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2010/article_0003.html

Top PCT Applicants in 2008

1.Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd (CN)
2.Panasonic Corporation (JP)
3.Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (NL)
4.Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (JP)
http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/newslett/2009/02/article_0001.html


- Huawei been CDMA network technology innovation highest award

http://www.waybeta.com/news/11368/huawei-been-cdma-network-technology-innovation-highest-award-_-huawei-wireless-on-card-news

Huawei Wins Prestigious Industry R&D Award
..dubbed by many in the industry as an "Oscar for Invention"
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2660903/

Huawei recognised for its contribution to the industry at Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards 2009.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-202019187.html

Huawei recognised for 'exceptional contribution to the global telecommunications industry'
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-153238887.html

Huaweis wavelength division multiplexer cited as one of the most technologically significant products of the year.
http://www.visitchn.com/2009/11/huawei-wins-rd-100-award.html

Huawei Wins 2009 Corporate Award from IEEE Standards Association
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-174027913.html

- won two top awards at the LTE World Summit 2010 in Holland. These awards include “Significant Progress for a Commercial Launch of LTE by a Vendor” and “Best Contribution to Research & Development for LTE.”

- Huawei has submitted more than 4,700 LTE/EPC standard proposal contributions to 3GPP and holds 181 LTE essential patents, accounting for 34% of the infrastructure vendors in LTE essential patents.

http://www.it-oc.com/ict/index.php/component/content/article/3-networking/280-huawei-wins-lte

Many more awards. Too long to list..

http://www.huawei.com/Search/result.do?p_n=10&input=page&o_by=rele&p_now=1&s_from=en_GL&old_qs=++%2Baward++%3Ddoc_status%3A2+%28%3Dsite_id%3Awwwengl+|+%3Dsite_id%3Aenpl%29+&old_lang=en_US&n_all=207&searchString=award&s_sel=en_GL

[Droidum Posted Jul 22nd 2010 9:59PM]

@wagawaga Stop embarrassing myself?? I'll try, but first you'll have to show me where you've found Huawei made $3 Billion Dollars in profit?? I'm POSITIVE you CAN'T!!

As for the patent discussion, your response conflates the issue I discussed. CHINA INC's subsidiary HUAWEI has many businesses. I'm speaking about their Telecommunications ARM. If their patent awards in the other businesses is similar to the LTE area, I'm not impressed. With respect to this area, HUAWEI RANKS... well just read below and we'll talk.

http://connectedplanetonline.com/3g4g/news/intellectual-property-4g-0518/index.html

EXCERPT FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:
“For example, from the 182 LTE patents contributed by Huawei, 178 are registered in China and only a HANDFUL of these could currently be described as ESSENTIAL,”

It's not all about numbers you see.... the PATENTS have to actually mean something.

WHO's THE KID NOW!!

[iZach Posted Jul 22nd 2010 2:12AM]

I'd say it would have to do with making fake droids. Like the fake iPhones called I-clones lol. Droids will be Foids. Fake droids lol.

[bravinash Posted Jul 22nd 2010 2:16AM]

How do you think LG and SAMSUNG have brought up their many many divisions and products?? Not to mention the Korean car manufacturers!!!! they rip off the technology as is and put a nicely designed skin on top. I have seen hundereds of feature phones from LG and Samsung with the same hardware but different skins... people fall for their cheap prices and make them more richer so that they can copy more and more in a better way...

[korbas12 Posted Jul 22nd 2010 2:29AM]

@bravinash If they buy it, it's theirs. If Huawei wants Moto tech so badly, they should buy the company or the patents...rather than just rip it off.

[Droidum Posted Jul 22nd 2010 9:02AM]

@korbas12 They tried... and thank God it never happened. The US Government would never allow it in any case. India kicked Chinese manufacturers out of their Country because of a back door hack they installed on the networks... India's Engineers discovered it and Huawei has NO Business or prospects in India. Welcome to the Communist Republic of China.

[korbas12 Posted Jul 22nd 2010 2:37AM]

@(Unverified) You're obsessed with hierarchy and status, and a terrible example of most Koreans. I'd prefer the most lowly, poor, toothless, dirty, barefoot Chinese to you.

[Awall Posted Jul 22nd 2010 4:39AM]

Cheese n rice Motorola. Don't blow an eFuse

[insiderinsight Posted Jul 22nd 2010 11:12AM]

very funny, hwawei in chinese means "China did it!" again and again,
KIRF.

But this copy rose from the humble and yet nasty stealing from Cosco years ago with pretty much Foxconn-style management on its slave employees. Their CEO, hailed as hero by Chinese useful idiots, sends regular messages to employees to brainwash them to stay loyal to the "organization". Even so under pressure, it's not news that some of the youngest and most under pressured lives jumped to death or died at work. And apparently many Chinese useless idiots advocate the "sacrifice" of this kind for the country to boost nominal pathetic $3000 per capita GDP before it will get them all to go over the cliff.

In china, most of overseas political news websites are blocked. The most popular discussion groups in China are called "strong nation" where they masturbate to the mirror dreaming of Yuan and Qing when Chinese hans were considered the bottom class mass that deserved nothing but beatup and humiliation. The country is totally screwed up.

[insiderinsight Posted Jul 22nd 2010 11:34AM]

In China mainland ( that's the slavery part of China, not HK, Macau, or Taiwan where Chinese are much freer and have lot of rights ), the gov bro controls the internet. To swing the discussion online to their favor, they have hired hundred of thousands of unemployed young jerks that can't get a job anyway and live with their parent and get no girl friends at all.

They are paid a flat RMB 0.5 per post. So in China these losers are called "50 cents" ( not American 50 cents, China's a lot cheaper ).

Consider hundreds of millions of Chinese cheap labors swarm to the coastal industrial zones to find better jobs where they drive the China's economy of working for world and get paid grand cheme.

These are sweatshops.

A casualty in a mine collapse/explosion only compensates his family mere $20,000 which was $5000 not long ago.

Even so, the 50cts still bark on those human right supporters blaming them for being intended to block China's growth to hell ultimately (at least in 50cents' life time - they don't live longer, as we know not due to brain dead but due to their parasite life style).

[Droidum Posted Jul 23rd 2010 6:32AM]

@insiderinsight Interesting perspective... Thanks for the insight.

[LSE Posted Aug 5th 2010 7:25AM]

ah chinese companies. when are they going to start innovating instead of trying to steal whatever trade secrets they can. This is similar to what happened with the japanese bullet train technology that they licensed from japan and then turned into chinese knock offs in violation of the japanese IP and patents. says a lot about how china plans to conduct itself around the world.

[Beangas Posted Aug 11th 2010 8:31AM]

Droidum is uncannily right -- I worked in Motorola China. "Lift skirt and bend over Yankee Imperialist dog!"

Understandable though -- we did the same to them for around 250 years...