Huawei gets a court order on Motorola, Nokia deal

MOBILE NETWORKING OUTFIT Motorola Solutions can not divulge confidential information about Huawei to Nokia under a court injunction the Chinese networking gear maker managed to get.

Huawei has been in a mobile networks technology partnership with Motorola and is concerned its business secrets could be given to Nokia as Motorola sells its business on to the Finnish company. Motorola does not have a material UMTS business as it depends on reselling Huawei's UMTS gear for high-speed wireless service.

Huawei has previously 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.

The US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued the preliminary injunction that compels Motorola to hire a qualified third party to ensure Huawei's confidential information is securely removed. It also allows Huawei to audit Nokia's records of service it performs on Motorola branded systems that include Huawei products.

Despite its years of collaboration with Motorola, Huawei clearly has little trust in its former partner, given the legal action. The Chinese company said, "Huawei is pleased that the court continues to recognize the merits of our claim that Motorola must abide by its contractual obligations to protect Huawei's trade secrets and intellectual property." µ