Judge finds that Hytera infringed Motorola patents

A US International Trade Commission (ITC) judge has made a determination in the long-running patent infringement dispute between Motorola Solutions Inc and Hytera Communications Corporation Limited.

The complainant, Motorola Solutions, had alleged that Hytera is unlawfully importing and selling two-way radio equipment, systems, related software and components in the US that infringe four of Motorola Solutions’ patents.

Motorola Solutions said that these patents pertain to technologies central to the operation of Hytera’s professional and commercial radio products available today.

Administrative Law Judge Mary Joan McNamara’s Notice of Initial Determination, issued on 3 July, states that all four of Motorola Solutions’ patents are valid, Hytera has infringed them, and Motorola Solutions met the legal requirement of showing a “technical domestic industry” on three of the four patents.

The ruling follows a lengthy investigation that culminated in a week-long hearing with testimony from both Motorola Solutions and Hytera witnesses, hundreds of pages of briefing materials and thousands of exhibits.

Judge McNamara also recommended an exclusion order preventing the importation of infringing products into the United States for Motorola Solutions’ US Patents No. 7,369,869, 7,729,701 and 8,279,991, as well as a cease-and-desist order preventing the further sale and marketing of certain infringing products imported into the United States.

A final determination is scheduled to be issued by the ITC by 6 November.

“Judge McNamara’s ruling validates our allegations, upholds the integrity of our intellectual property and rebukes Hytera for its unscrupulous and unlawful behaviour in wilfully infringing Motorola Solutions’ patents,” said Mark Hacker, general counsel and chief administrative officer of Motorola Solutions.

“While we consider the initial determination an important step, it is only one component of our global efforts to address Hytera’s systematic, brazen and egregious theft and infringement of our intellectual property.

“Motorola Solutions has a long and distinguished track record of innovation with an extensive portfolio of approximately 5000 patents. We are committed to vigorously defending our valuable intellectual property as we continue to drive innovation for our customers,” added Hacker.

“We greatly appreciate the diligent work undertaken by Judge McNamara and the ITC staff during this investigation, and we are confident that the full ITC will uphold this decision and enter a final determination consistent with today’s findings.”

In a statement issued in the wake of the determination, Hytera noted that MSI had originally asserted seven patents in its complaint but later withdrew three of them, but that Judge McNamara found that a limited number of claims in the four remaining patents at issue are infringed.

“However, Judge McNamara also determined that none of MSI’s products practice one of the four remaining patents. Consequently, MSI does not satisfy the technical industry prong of the domestic industry requirement as to that patent, and thus Judge McNamara did not find a violation of the statute,” Hytera’s statement said.

“Hytera is disappointed with this initial determination. We will ask the Commission to review and reverse this decision. We believe our products do not infringe our competitor’s asserted patents and will seek to demonstrate this to the Commission.”

The Hytera statement added that “since the Commission has not issued its final decision, there is no ban on the importation or sale of any Hytera products. Furthermore, Hytera has developed new products, which Hytera also believes do not infringe any of the asserted patents and which we previously presented to the ITC for its consideration. We are confident our new products do not infringe our competitor’s asserted patents.

“Innovation is the core value of Hytera. We will continue to focus on providing innovative, high-quality, cost-effective, and reliable products and solutions for our dealers and customers here in the US, as we do around the world.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/fergregory

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