Motorola Solutions Prevails in Australian Copyright, Patent Case Against Hytera

Motorola Solutions, Inc. has announced that the Federal Court of Australia (the “Court”) has ruled in favor of Motorola Solutions in its copyright and patent infringement claims against Hytera Communications Corporation Limited and Hytera Communications (Australia) Pty Limited of Australia (collectively, “Hytera”). The Court found that Hytera has infringed Motorola Solutions’ copyright and patent rights, and determined that Motorola Solutions is entitled to an order permanently restraining Hytera from continued infringement, as well as pecuniary relief, including additional damages for copyright infringement, with the amount yet to be determined.

The entitlement to additional (i.e. exemplary) damages arises from the Court’s determination that Hytera’s infringement of Motorola Solutions’ rights was flagrant and “constituted a substantial industrial theft” of its proprietary source code. The Court also observed that Motorola Solutions proved its case despite “the fact that much of Hytera’s source code has vanished.” The Court will make its reasons for its decision publicly available, and make orders giving effect to the decision, early in the new year.

“We are pleased the Australian Federal Court recognizes that Hytera unlawfully copied our proprietary source code and is infringing our patent rights,” said Mark Hacker, general counsel and chief administrative officer of Motorola Solutions. “Since we commenced our global litigation campaign to hold Hytera accountable, a federal jury in the United States, the U.S. International Trade Commission, courts in Germany and now Australia have all ruled in our favor. The evidence of Hytera’s egregious theft and blatant infringement of our patents, trade secrets and copyrights is overwhelming, and today’s victory further validates our efforts to protect our intellectual property for the benefit of our industry, customers, channel and distribution partners, shareholders and other stakeholders.”

The Court determined that certain of Hytera’s Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) products infringe Motorola Solutions’ Australian patent. Hytera’s infringing DMR products include a substantial number of its portables (22 models), mobiles (two models) and repeaters (four models). In addition, the Court found that Hytera unlawfully copied Motorola Solutions’ source code into Hytera’s DMR equipment, thereby infringing and continuing to infringe Motorola Solutions’ copyright.

The injunctive relief will restrain Hytera from making, importing, offering to sell, selling or otherwise distributing in Australia DMR products that are capable of performing Motorola Solutions’ patented methods or reproduce Motorola Solutions’ copyrighted source code.