RSSThe U.S. district judge overseeing Motorola Solutions’ lawsuit against Hytera Communications in the Northern District of Illinois retired.
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Judge Charles Norgle officially retired on October 4. Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, the chief judge of the district, reassigned the Hytera-Motorola case to Judge Martha Pacold.
In February 2020, a jury found in favor of Motorola Solutions and awarded it $764.6 million in damages, which was later reduced by Norgle. However, since the jury reached its verdict, the two sides have spent two years wrangling over post trial issues.
As part of those proceedings, Motorola asked for a permanent injunction that would have prevented Hytera from importing, selling and distributing products determined to include Motorola’s trade secrets. Norgle denied that motion and instead ordered Hytera to pay quarterly royalty payments for use of Motorola’s trade secrets.
In August, Hytera filed a notice with the court saying it was unable to make the first royalty payment and asking Norgle to allow it to use shares of its stock as a security against its debt. Motorola asked the court to hold Hytera in contempt for failing to make the first payment.
At the time of his retirement, Norgle had not made a ruling on the royalty issue. Final briefs on the issue were due back in September. There has been no timeline released for when Pacold may make a decision on the issue.
