Hytera resumes sales after US court suspends global ban
Chinese walkie-talkie maker Hytera Communications Corp has resumed global sales and distribution of its two-way radio products after a US court temporarily lifted an injunction that barred the firm from selling them as part of a trade secret dispute with rival Motorola Solutions.
The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Tuesday suspended the global sales injunction, the worldwide notice requirement and the further accumulation of US$1-million-per-day fines against Hytera that was ordered by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois this month, a notice on the Shenzhen-based firm’s website said.
“The company will work closely with global partners to immediately resume normal business activities and initiate the sale of related products,” Hytera said in a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Shares in the company rose by the daily maximum limit of 10 per cent yesterday.
The Illinois court on April 2 temporarily prohibited Hytera from selling and distributing its two-way products worldwide, pending the company’s full compliance with the court’s antisuit injunction orders. Hytera said on April 7 it had suspended sales of those products in compliance with the orders.
The products covered by the injunction – “including portables, mobiles, base stations and repeaters”, according to the court order – contain two-way radio technology, which is at the centre of Motorola Solutions’ trade secret and copyright infringement dispute. The US telecoms equipment specialist is an independent business from smartphone maker Motorola Mobility, which was acquired by Lenovo Group in 2014.
But Hytera warned of potential uncertainties in the case.
“The case is still in the appeal stage, and the company will take various countermeasures and make the best efforts to revoke the [ban],” it said.
The long-drawn-out case shows the continued pressure faced by Hytera, which had been indicted for conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets by the US Justice Department. Motorola Solutions in 2020 won a US$764.6 million verdict from a federal jury in Chicago in its dispute against the firm, which denied the accusations and appealed.
The US district court’s recent sales ban order triggered heated debate on Chinese social media, with some calling the sanctions “harsher” than Washington’s blacklisting of Huawei Technologies.
Such a ban would pose a significant blow to Hytera, which generated 83 per cent of its 2022 revenue from professional wireless communications devices that largely comprised two-way radio products.
Motorola Solutions initiated its court dispute against Hytera in 2017, accusing it of recruiting and hiring the US company’s employees and directing them to take proprietary information and trade secrets without authorisation.
After it was indicted by the US Justice Department in early 2022, Hytera filed a case with the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court and sought a ruling that its new H-series products did not infringe Motorola Solutions’ trade secrets and copyrights.
Last month, the US district court ruled that Hytera’s litigation in Shenzhen was in contempt of its sanctions and issued anti-suit injunction orders to force Hytera to drop that case. The firm on April 8 said it had done so.