Kirkland Pilots Motorola Solutions to $764 Million IP Verdict

Motorola Solutions Inc. said Friday that it has won a $764.6 million trade secrets and copyright verdict against Hytera Communications, a competitor in the field of two-way radios and repeaters.

Jurors awarded $345.8 million in compensatory damages and $418.8 million in punitive damages in the Northern District of Illinois. Chicago-based Motorola had accused four former engineers of downloading confidential documents, including proprietary source code for digital mobile radios, before joining Hytera between 2008 and 2010. Shenzhen, China-based Hytera has argued that Motorola waited too long to act on its suspicions.

“We presented clear facts and evidence of Hytera’s theft and infringement and are pleased the jury found in favor of our client,” Los Angeles Kirkland & Ellis partner Michael De Vries, part of Motorola Solutions’ trial team, said in a written statement. “This positive outcome, in combination with the findings of other Courts in jurisdictions around the world, further validates Motorola Solutions’ global litigation against Hytera.”

According to Motorola, the evidence presented at trial demonstrated that Hytera stole more than 10,000 confidential documents, millions of lines of confidential source code and took steps to conceal its theft to avoid detection. Hytera has argued that Motorola acquired and analyzed a digital radio in 2012 and found “no obvious evidence of proprietary material” in it. At the very least, the Defend Trade Secrets Act’s three-year statute of limitations and the Illinois Trade Secrets Act’s five-year time bar should have begun running then, Hytera has argued.

Kirkland’s team also included partners Adam Alper, Brandon Brown, Megan New, Leslie Schmidt, Chris Lawless and Akshay Deoras.

Hytera was represented by Steptoe & Johnson and Calfee, Halter & Griswold. A Steptoe attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.

Motorola is separately litigating patent infringement actions against Hytera. Hytera is waging an antitrust suit against Motorola, accusing it of unfairly weakening competition.