Motorola said the guilty plea doesn’t resolve the company’s ongoing civil litigation against Hytera, which is partly owned by a local government in China.
Chinese radio systems manufacturer Hytera pleaded guilty in a federal court in Chicago on Monday to conspiring to steal digital walkie-talkie technology from Illinois-based Motorola Solutions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in North Illinois said on Tuesday.
Under the plea agreement, Hytera will be fined up to $60 million. Separately, the court is expected to decide on the amount of restitution that Hytera will be ordered to pay Motorola.
The sentencing hearing is set to be held on Nov. 6 before U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp, Jr.
Motorola said the felony guilty plea does not resolve the company’s ongoing civil litigation against Hytera.
According to the plea agreement, Hytera admitted to stealing technology used in a digital mobile radio (DMR) product line, which Motorola introduced in or around 2007.
Hytera, which is partly owned by a local government in China, then used some of the information to develop its own products, including those sold in the Northern District of Illinois after June 2016.
In or around 2008, the plea agreement stated that seven individual co-defendants knowingly conspired to steal Motorola documents and source code related to DMR technology from a Malaysian subsidiary of the U.S. company. And they “did so intending to convert at least one trade secret for Hytera’s use in producing DMR products into interstate commerce, which Hytera ultimately did produce in or about 2010,” it said.
The agreement said Hytera admitted that the facts establish its guilt and “reserves the right to challenge at sentencing whether the trade secrets alleged by the government are, in fact, trade secrets.”
The Department of Justice filed charges in 2021 against Hytera and seven individual co-defendants, including Gee Siong Kok, a senior Hytera vice president.
According to Kok’s plea agreement in December 2022, a Hytera executive began poaching him in 2007 when he was a senior engineering manager responsible for DMR products at Motorola.
The document said that the executive instructed Kok to steal Motorola’s technology and that Kok recruited five of the co-defendants, Yih Tzye Kok, Samuel Chia Han Siong, Wong Kiat Hoe, Yu Kok Hoong, and Chua Siew Wei. Another co-defendant, Phaik Ee Ooi, was recruited by Yih Tzye Kok.
According to Motorola, Kok is still awaiting sentencing, and the other six co-defendants remain at large.
“Hytera‘s admission of guilt in federal court validates the extensive evidence that it is a bad actor and felon, and we remain firmly resolute to holding Hytera accountable for its egregious illegal conduct,” Greg Brown, chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions, said in a statement published on Tuesday.
Brown praised the Department of Justice for its “diligence” in the case, saying it’s “critical validation that our government is fully committed to prosecuting criminals who steal from American companies.
“We will continue to vigorously defend our valuable intellectual property and trade secrets for the benefit of our company, our customers and our shareholders,” he said.The company said it will continue to pursue its own case against Hytera.
Since 2017, Motorola has filed lawsuits against Hytera in the United States, Germany, and Australia.
In 2020, the company won a civil case against Hytera in in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, with a Jury awarding $764.6 million in compensatory and punitive damages, the amount was later reduced to $543.7 million by the district court, and to around $471 million by the Seventh Circuit Court.
Motorola said it’s “continuing to pursue collection” of the award.
Hytera didn’t respond to The Epoch Times request for comment by the time of publishing.