Motorola and Huawei call a truce

Motorola and Huawei have pulled out the peace pipes, announcing today that they have entered into an agreement to settle all pending litigation between them, “pending the satisfaction of certain conditions.” In a joint statement, the pair expressed “regret that these disputes have occurred between our two companies,” with Motorola CEO Greg Brown adding that the company valued its long-standing relationship with Huawei and had decided to “return to our traditional relationship of confidence and trust.”

According to the statement, Huawei will withdraw, “with prejudice” its suit against Motorola and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and “enter into an agreement that allows Motorola Solutions to transfer its commercial agreements with Huawei to NSN for a fee.” NSN will also be allowed to receive and use Huawei confidential information to service networks Motorola deployed worldwide using Huawei’s products and technologies. On the Motorola side of the fence, the company has also agreed to withdraw with prejudice its claims against Huawei in the Motorola v. Lemko trial in Chicago.

In 2008, Motorola initiated proceedings against Lemko, a Huawei re-seller in America, saying that employees there had shared company secrets with the complicity of Huawei. Earlier this year, Huawei took action against Motorola in a bid to prevent the firm from passing on intellectual property to NSN following a proposed $1.2bn merger between the two.

In 2000, Motorola and Huawei entered an agreement that allowed the former to re-sell certain Huawei products under its own name. In the 10 years since then, Motorola has spent $880m on core network and radio access kit from the Chinese vendor. According to Huawei, it has also provided Motorola with “source code and millions of documents.” The company insisted that it had acted “properly and above board at all times and developed its products independently and without the use of any Motorola trade secrets.”

Huawei executive VP Guo Ping said that “With the resolution of these cases, and the misunderstandings put to rest, Huawei is pleased to move forward with its efforts to provide innovative solutions to its customers.”