RSSMotorola Solutions asked an Illinois District judge to compel the Bank of China to turn over assets belonging to Hytera Communications in order to cover damages awarded by a jury to Motorola.
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Last February, a jury for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois awarded Motorola $764.6 million in damages from Hytera after it determined that Hytera had stolen Motorola trade secrets and used them in its Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) products and infringed Motorola copyrights. At the end of 2020, District Judge Charles Norgle later reduced those damages to $543.7 million.
In its motion for an order to compel, Motorola asked that the judge compel the bank to turn over assets belonging to Motorola up to $543.7 million owed in damages by Hytera.
“Over ten months after this court entered judgment, Hytera continues to avoid taking any responsibility for its illegal acts,” Motorola’s motion said. “And Hytera has continued to confirm its intent to evade the judgement.”
Motorola cited several examples of what it described as Hytera’s attempts to avoid paying the damages awarded to Motorola. These included filing bankruptcy petitions on behalf of its U.S. subsidiaries to cause what it called an “insider sale” to “extinguish their liability to Motorola,” and resisting post-judgment discovery that is allowed by Illinois law.
“These are just examples,” Motorola’s motion said. “The simple fact is that Hytera has no intent of satisfying its judgment debt. And yet Hytera has been, and still is, an unrepentant bad actor, having committed one of the largest technology thefts in history, which continues to this day as Hytera sells the very products that its executives admitted at trial contain stolen Motorola trade secrets, accruing more and more liability that Hytera does not plan to remediate, thereby continuing to irreparably harm Motorola.”
In its motion, Motorola noted that Norgle denied Motorola’s request for a permanent injunction that would prevent it from importing, distributing and selling products determined to include Motorola trade secrets because the judge determined that the harm caused by those action could be compensated by the damages awarded.
“To date, Hytera has refused to pay even a single penny of the outstanding $543.7 million owed for its theft,” the motion said. “Hytera’s recalcitrance is particularly significant in view of the court’s decision to deny Motorola’s request for injunctive relief, which noted that an injunction was not warranted because the harm Hytera has inflicted on Motorola is ‘compensable with damages.’ Hytera, however, has made it clear that it will not pay, not in response to the judgement it owes, not as part of an ongoing reasonable royalty obligation, or in any other setting.”
Motorola argued that because Hytera continues to sell products including Motorola trade secrets, its judgement debt to Motorola continues to rise.
“Accordingly, turnover of Hytera’s assets in Hytera’s account at a bank in this district is necessary to preserve Motorola’s strong interest in the judgment,” the motion said. It noted that the Bank of China has a branch in the northern district of Illinois.
Norgle initially granted the turnover motion but then two days later vacated the order. He set a deadline of February 17 for Hytera to respond to Motorola’s motion and a deadline of March 3 for Motorola to respond to that response. In vacating the order, he did not specify why he did so.
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These are typical Chinese thugs. The same ones that stole all the trade secrets from Nortel in Canada and developed them into a huge Chinese government operation called Huawie Guess what Nortel doesn t exist anymore The judge is likely being threatened by China ....
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