Huawei seeks court order against former partner Motorola

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 25 January 2011 14:01

IT Industry - Strategy

China-based communications hardware provider Huawei is seeking a court order to prevent its intellectual property being transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks as part of Motorola's divestiture of its wireless network business.

Huawei and Motorola had a longstanding relationship, which included the sale of Huawei products under the Motorola name. This included GSM and CDMO switching equipment and UMTS products.

But Motorola sold its wireless networking business to Nokia Siemens in July 2010, and has failed to satisfy Huawei that it will prevent the disclosure of the Chinese company's intellectual property.

Huawei has filed suit in an Illinois US District Court requesting an order that the relevant portion of Motorola's business not be transferred to Nokia Siemens until the matter is settled by arbitration in line with the agreement between Huawei and Motorola.

The complaint says in part that "Motorola intends to transfer its wireless infrastructure business, including its UMTS and GSM business, to NSN [Nokia Siemens Networks], which competes directly with Huawei. Such a transfer, if consummated in its originally contemplated form, will result in the massive disclosure of Huawei's confidential information to NSN, with irreparable harm to Huawei. A large number of Motorola employees, many carrying direct knowledge of Huawei's confidential information, would become employees of NSN."

Huawei claims that Nokia Siemens is one of its direct competitors, and that it has not given consent to the assignment of its agreements with Motorola to Nokia Siemens.

What other issues are raised by Huawei? Please read on.