Go Stop, Moto!

Huawei wins injunction, gums up Nokia sale

Huawei has roadblocked – at least partially – Motorola’s planned sale of its wireless network unit to Nokia Siemens Networks. The Chinese vendor has been awarded an injunction in a US District Court blocking “the transfer of Huawei intellectual property” to Nokia Siemens.

Motorola had a long-standing OEM deal with Huawei covering GSM, UMTS and radio network controllers sold under the Motorola brand. Huawei has alleged to the court that the Moto-Nokia deal, announced last year, would involve the transfer of its IP to its competitor.

The US District Court order prevents Motorola from transferring a range of IP to Nokia Siemens, including interface specs; software and code for wireless products; configuration documentation and tools; any information relating to Huawei strategy; and performance data. It also prevents all Motorola staff due to be transferred with the sale from revealing Huawei information. ®