Huawei tries to stop Motorola from flogging businesses to Nokia Siemens

CHINESE NETWORKING gear maker Huawei has filed a lawsuit to block Motorola from flogging one of its business units to Nokia Siemens Networks.

The deal is supposed to be worth $1.2 billion but Huawei wants it changed to avoid infringing on its intellectual property rights.

Huawei wants the deal to exclude any equipment based on widely used GSM and UMTS technology standards because it would be a possible infringement of intellectual property rights by Motorola.

Huawei said that it filed the lawsuit because Motorola, its partner since 2000, did not give it any assurance that it would not transfer Huawei information to Nokia Siemens. There are other reasons why Huawei would not want the deal to go ahead. The deal with Motorola would push Nokia-Siemens well ahead of Huawei in the networking equipment market.

According to Reuters, Motorola's GSM business makes up 35 per cent of an estimated $3.65 billion 2010 revenue for the networks business.

Motorola Solutions does not have a material UMTS business as it depends on reselling Huawei's UMTS gear for high-speed wireless service. However this might stop the Nokia Siemens deal from being completed, and the whole thing might need to be renegotiated.

Huawei's lawsuit names Nokia Siemens; Motorola Solutions, which holds the network equipment unit being sold, and Motorola Mobility which holds the phone and set-top box business and intellectual property assets from the network business. Motorola Mobility was separated from the rest of Motorola on 4 January.

Huawei has since got a sort of restraining order on Motorola as the judge decided both companies must agree protective measures for the IP within 24 hours and Motorola has to inform the court of any developments in the sale of its networks business. µ