Hytera hit by new copyright infringement claim by Motorola Solutions

In another twist to the long-running legal battle between Motorola Solutions and Hytera, the former has filed a motion to add a claim for copyright infringement to its litigation pending in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Hytera.

A statement from Motorola Solutions says that “The new claim asserts that Hytera has unlawfully copied Motorola Solutions’ source code into the source code used in Hytera products in violation of US copyright laws, which only became known to Motorola Solutions during hearings related to the trade secret litigation.”

The original complaint in this court was lodged by Motorola Solutions back in March 2017 and it asserts that that Hytera’s two-way radios, base stations, repeaters and dispatch systems, as well as its related commercialisation and sales activities, are infringing patents owned by Motorola Solutions and using stolen Motorola Solutions trade secrets.

This new claim from Motorola Solutions asserts that Hytera illegally obtained Motorola Solutions’ source code for its software computer programs – which the claimant describes as among its most confidential and carefully guarded proprietary technology – and copied portions of it verbatim into Hytera’s digital two-way radio products. According to the statement, “Motorola Solutions believes this claim represents clear additional evidence that Hytera’s employees copied Motorola Solutions’ proprietary technologies.”