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Tiffany Wang is an IPilogue Writer, IP Innovation Clinic Fellow, and a 2L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School.
In 2008, three former Motorola Solutions employees, Communications Corporation Limited (“Hytera Corp.”). The three engineers, upon leaving Motorola Solutions, shared digital mobile radio .
In February 2020, a jury in the demanded that Hytera Corp. pay more than . The Chicago federal jury’s includes $345.8 million in compensatory damages and $418.8 million in punitive damages.
The case started on its exposed trade secrets in creating Hytera’s DMR products. Hytera Corp. assembled a .
Not only did Motorola Solutions allege that Hytera violated U.S. copyright laws by copying their source code, it also complained that Hytera . Hytera .
Motorola Solutions chairman and CEO Greg Brown expressed that Hytera .
Discovery from a prior court filing revealed similarities between Motorola Solutions’ and Hytera’s products. Hytera’s source code “”. The source codes were similar to the extent that identical appeared in both.
This case represents a significant infringement of innovation and technology. Profiting from a market competitor’s innovations via trade secrets and source code theft misappropriates the intellectual creation and property of other firms’ investments. The significant cost awards signal the courts’ commitment to protecting the value of intellectual property and ensuring that does not lessen the integrity of intellectual creation.