Mobile Base Stations and Motorola's Huawei Suit
Thursday, 22 July 2010 18:56
Lemko wowed the broadband planners with a demonstration of a cellular base lemko_COW_raisedstation that could fit in an SUV and be very rapidly deployed to cover an emergency. Huawei supplied some of the gear to Lemko and also worked closely with Lemko on some products.
    Some of the Lemko folks were employed at Moto. They say the work they did for Lemko was on their spare time; Moto says it belongs to Moto. Moto is now suing both.  (91 page complaint)
    Huawei is far ahead of Moto in LTE, which everyone agrees is the right standard for the public safety network. They are deploying LTE around the world. Huawei has many more wireless engineers than MOTO and certainly doesn't need to steal designs from anyone.
   Something like a million square miles of the U.S. - much unpopulated - is not reached by the current network of cell towers. While the plan has proposals to cover some of that territory, everyone recognizes huge areas will not be covered in the foreseeable future. The Lemko or a similar unit could rapidly drive to a forest fire, prisoner search, or other emergency in remote areas and support all the fire or police radios. One model for the U.S. public safety network would station one of more SUV COWs in every state ready to deploy when needed.
     Moto dominates the market currently. That's one reason the folks designing the public safety network are looking at alternatives. So it's no surprise Motorola wants to do everything in their power to keep a competitor out of the market. There's extremely bitterness because Lemko folks worked at Moto before they decided set out on their own.
     Here's Motorola's statement. I believe they are they are being very cautious after intense criticism in China, an important market for them. Huawei is a national champion with strong support.
Motorola's policy is not to comment on pending litigation; however, we will vigorously protect our valuable intellectual property. This litigation is nothing more than a legal dispute between Motorola, Lemko and Huawei.  Motorola has a long-term commitment to China. We have developed deep relationships with local partners, including government, customers, suppliers, and distributors, and will continue to grow our presence here.  As a technology-driven company, Motorola has developed first-rate R&D forces in China to help stimulate innovation, foster talent and create new technologies. We look forward to continuing to develop relationships in China.
    I have no evidence about Moto's implications that Huawei and Lemko ripped off Moto's designs, and it may true. It's also quite possible any documents supplied were just those required to interface with the Motorola radios currently in use. Moto has enormous influence over the official and de facto standards. It may be that information like this is required to compete. If so, there is a natural antitrust counterclaim because Moto is freezing out competition.
     Repeat: I do not know whether Lemko & Huawei have abused trade secrets and/or Motorola abused standards and competition.
   Mike Clendenin notes "Motorola has employed Huawei as a supplier for all of its wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) equipment for its wireless business." Yet one more reason to think Huawei didn't need to knock off designs.
    Until a few weeks ago Moto had such respect for Huawei they were about to sell them a division for $1B. Now, they are calling Huawei unethical.