Chinese Company Targeted Motorola Trade Secrets, Fined $50 Million
Udumbara
.
A Chinese company was found to have conspired to steal proprietary technology from Motorola and was fined $50 million by a federal judge on March 9.
Chicago-based Motorola was split into two companies in 2011, Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility. The latter was acquired by Google in 2012, and by the Chinese company Lenovo in 2014, and the former has sued Hytera over trade secret theft.
Hytera is based in Shenzhen, China, and partially owned by the local government. Hytera US, a California-based subsidiary, is not a party to the case.
According to the Justice Department, Hytera used stolen digital mobile radio technology to compete with Motorola through 2020.
Hytera pleaded guilty last year in the criminal case and has been fined $50 million, was ordered to pay $214 million in restitution, and was sentenced to five years of probation, during which the company must submit reports to the government. The restitution will be reduced by amounts previously paid to Motorola in a civil case. The sentencing hearing was held before U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp, Jr. in November.
Motorola sued Hytera in 2017 for trade secret theft and copyright infringement, and in 2020, a jury ruled in Motorola’s favor. Hytera was ordered to pay $764.6 million, which it did not pay in full; instead, it countersued in Shenzhen, China. A federal district court held Hytera in contempt three times from 2023 through 2024 over failure to pay, and imposed a $1 million daily fine until Hytera withdrew its lawsuit in China.
The fines were upheld on appeal, in a ruling which noted that Hytera had submitted false evidence and deleted documents it was ordered to produce. By September 2025, a court determined that Hytera was still using Motorola Solutions’ stolen trade secrets and that Motorola was therefore entitled to royalty payments. According to Motorola, Hytera has paid $175 million in judgment and royalty payments as of September 2025.
Seven Hytera employees were also indicted in 2021 over their alleged roles in stealing Motorola trade secrets. Gee Siong Kok pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal trade secrets in 2022 and agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation. The remaining six defendants have not been arrested.
.
