【英语科技】摩托罗拉起诉华为窃取技术机密

Motorola Inc. has sued Huawei Technologies Co., alleging the Chinese telecom equipment maker engaged in an elaborate plot over a number of years to steal its latest technology.

In a complaint filed in U.S. federal court in Illinois, Motorola claims Huawei worked with more than a dozen of its employees during the last decade to secure detailed confidential information about its cellular network equipment.

The employees named in the suit are no longer employed by Motorola. They include Shaowei Pan, who Motorola claims secretly reported to Huawei's founder and chairman, Ren Zhengfei, for years while he worked at the Shaumburg, Ill., company. Motorola claims Mr. Pan then left to help set up a company in Schaumburg called Lemko Corp. with the purpose of stealing more secrets from Motorola.

Huawei called the complaint 'utterly without merit.'

Mr. Pan's lawyers didn't respond to requests for comment. He has responded to earlier complaints, arguing that he, in fact, created a number of the inventions Motorola alleges he stole, and that he created them after leaving the company.

Other defendants couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Lemko has claimed in court filings that Motorola has falsely attacked it in an attempt to put it out of business and take over its proprietary technology, which involves developments in a field Motorola overlooked for years. 'It is unfortunate that Motorola continues to define its success by the number of frivolous lawsuits it commences,' a Lemko spokesman said.

Motorola joins the chief executives of General Electric Co. and Siemens AG in raising complaints that China has been too aggressive in trying to get hold of advanced technology. Earlier this year, Google Inc. claimed its computer systems had suffered a massive attack traced to Chinese hackers, who stole proprietary computer code and tried to break into email accounts of human-rights activists.

The increasingly public complaints show executives' growing frustration with their progress in China and with the emergence of Chinese companies as potent competitors.

Huawei, founded in 1988 by Mr. Ren, a former officer in China's People's Liberation Army, has shaken up the global market for telecom equipment, using aggressive pricing to fight its way into the ranks of the Top 3 suppliers world-wide.

The complaint alleges there was an elaborate scheme directly involving Huawei's chairman, Mr. Ren.

Mr. Pan, who appeared to be the primary contact for Mr. Ren, attempted to destroy the contents of his home computers with file-destruction software before he was ordered by the court to hand them over by the end of May 2009, according to the complaint.

But some evidence was nevertheless retained that helped to detail the operation, according to the complaint.

Mr. Pan met with Mr. Ren in Beijing in 2001, according to the complaint.
At the time, Mr. Pan was a senior engineer responsible for architecture at Motorola, where he had worked since 1994.

In August 2002, Mr. Pan reported to Mr. Ren about the response in other markets, including Brazil and India, to some of the latest Motorola products, according to the complaint. According to the complaint, he also reported, 'If our plan can progress smoothly, Lemko will be the company we are planning to establish, and it will be independent of Motorola Inc.'

In March 2003, Mr. Pan, along with two Motorola software engineers, visited with Huawei executives in China, including the company's vice president of wireless communications, JinLong Hou and Mr. Ren, according to the complaint.

Immediately after his return to the U.S. from the China trip in early March 2003, Mr. Pan, at Huawei's request, transferred proprietary information to the Huawei executives about a Motorola base station -- a critical piece of equipment used in Motorola's 'seamless mobility' initiative -- using his personal email account, according to an email the complaint claims Motorola recovered.

'Attached please find those document about SC300 (CDMA 2000 1X) specification you asked,' wrote Mr. Pan in the recovered email to Mr. Hou, referring to the base station. Mr. Hou acknowledged receipt of the email, according to the complaint.

The specifications about the base station sent to the Huawei executive, with each page marked 'Motorola Confidential Property, were found in an email on Mr. Pan's computer, according to the complaint.

Huawei knew that the technology shown to its executives was 'derived from misappropriated Motorola trade secrets and confidential information by full-time Motorola employees,' the complaint said.

Lemko and Huawei are now selling equipment based on that stolen technology, according to the complaint.

The filing was the first time Motorola has named Huawei in the two-year-old legal proceedings.

Motorola has sued the same group of employees and Lemko on the same charges, and the case hasn't been settled.

Motorola alleged in the complaint that one defendant, Hanjuan Jin, who went to work for Motorola as a software engineer in 1998, began working simultaneously for Lemko around 2004. She continued to access Motorola's protected computers during this time, transferring confidential information to her personal email account, according to the complaint.

In February 2007, Ms. Jin was attempting to board a one-way flight to Beijing from Chicago when she was stopped by U.S. Customs officials, according to the complaint.

They found she was carrying $30,000 in cash and more than 1,000 paper and electronic documents concerning Motorola trade secrets, according to the complaint.

Motorola announced Monday that it had agreed to sell most of the business at issue -- its wireless networks unit -- to Nokia Siemens Networks for $1.2 billion.

Huawei had been in the running for Motorola's networks business, and the U.S. company had promised not to proceed with the trade secrets case as long as a sale to the Chinese company was possible, a person familiar with the matter said.

When Nokia Siemens emerged as the winner, Motorola proceeded with the legal case against Huawei, the person familiar said.

Motorola is seeking damages and the return of its trade secrets. 'Motorola will continue to vigorously protect its intellectual property,' a Motorola spokeswoman said.

Huawei has reshaped the telecommunications industry in recent years by forcing competitors to lower prices and risen to become one of the top three telecommunications equipment vendors in the world.

In addition to continuing to beat competitors on price, Huawei is one of the leading vendors of equipment for Long Term Evolution, or LTE, a wireless standard that allows higher traffic speeds than older networks. It has snapped up contracts even in the home markets of its European competitors.

This isn't the first time Huawei has been accused of stealing trade secrets from a U.S. company.

In 2003, Cisco Systems Inc. alleged the company stole its router code, but it dropped the suit after Huawei agreed to remove its router products from the market and change them.

At a trade show in Chicago in 2004, a Huawei employee was caught after hours taking pictures of competing products. Huawei subsequently fired the employee.

摩托罗拉(Motorola Inc.)起诉中国电信设备生产商华为技术有限公司，称华为多年参与一项精心策划的、窃取摩托罗拉最新技术的秘密计划。

摩托罗拉在提交给伊利诺伊州美国联邦法院的起诉书中称，过去10年来，华为与10多名摩托罗拉员工合谋窃取了其手机网络设备方面的详细机密信息。

起诉书中列出的员工已经不再受雇于摩托罗拉，其中包括潘少伟（音）。摩托罗拉称，潘少伟在摩托罗拉工作期间，向华为创始人、董事长任正非秘密汇报达数年时间。位于伊利诺伊州绍姆堡(Schaumburg)的摩托罗拉称，潘少伟之后离开摩托罗拉，参与在绍姆堡成立了一家名为Lemko Corp.的公司，目的是从摩托罗拉窃取更多的商业秘密。

华为称摩托罗拉对它的指控毫无根据。

潘少伟的律师们没有回复记者的置评请求。潘少伟对此前的指控做出回应，称摩托罗拉宣称他窃取的发明实际上有很多是他自己发明的，而且是在他离开摩托罗拉之后发明出来的。

记者暂时无法联系到其他被告进行置评。

Lemko公司在提交给法庭的文件中宣称，摩托罗拉对它进行不实指控，目的是令其破产，并接手它的专利技术，其中包括摩托罗拉多年来忽视的一个领域的开发项目。Lemko发言人说，不幸的是，摩托罗拉继续用它发起的琐碎诉讼案数量来定义自己的成功。

摩托罗拉与通用电气(General Electric Co.)和西门子(Siemens AG)的首席执行长们抱怨说，中国在试图控制先进技术方面做的太过头了。今年早些时候，谷歌(Google Inc.)称其电脑系统遭到了源于中国黑客的大规模攻击；中国黑客窃取了其专利电脑程序，并试图攻入人权活动人士的电子邮箱帐户。

越来越公开的抱怨显示出，高管们对在华的进展和中国公司成为强劲竞争对手感到越来越有挫折感。

华为于1988年由前中国人民解放军军官任正非创立。华为使全球电信设备市场发生了巨变，利用具有竞争力的价格进入了全球三大供应商之列。

起诉书称，这是一项精心设计的、直接牵涉到华为董事长任正非的秘密计划。

潘少伟看起来是任正非的主要联系人。起诉书中说，在法院下令潘少伟于2009年5月底前交出家中电脑里的内容前，他试图用文件破坏软件将电脑内容毁掉。

据起诉书说，不过仍获得了一些证据，帮助了解了案情。

据起诉书说，2001年潘少伟在北京遇到了任正非。

当时，潘少伟是摩托罗拉负责构架的高级工程师。他从1994年开始在摩托罗拉工作。

起诉书中说，2002年8月，潘少伟向任正非汇报了包括巴西和印度在内的其他市场对摩托罗拉部分最新产品的反应。据起诉书说，他还汇报说，如果我们的计划能够顺利进行，我们将计划成立Lemko，它将独立于摩托罗拉。

起诉书说，2003年3月，潘少伟和摩托罗拉的另外两位软件工程师在中国拜访了华为的高管，包括公司负责无线通讯的副总裁侯金龙和任正非。

根据起诉书中声称摩托罗拉发现的一份电子邮件，2003年3月初潘少伟从中国回到美国后，在华为的要求下，潘少伟很快通过他的个人电子邮件帐户，将关于摩托罗拉基站的专利信息传给华为高层人士。基站是摩托罗拉用于“无缝移动”技术的关键设备。

在被发现的潘少伟写给侯金龙的电子邮件中，潘少伟写道，随附你想要的关于SC300 (CDMA 2000 1X)规格的文件，他指的就是基站。起诉书中说，侯金龙承认收到了这封电子邮件。

根据起诉书，发送给华为管理层的基站规格是在潘少伟电脑的一封电子邮件里发现的，文件每页都标有“摩托罗拉保密资产”。

起诉书称，华为知道展示给其管理层看的技术是“摩托罗拉全职员工提供的窃取来的摩托罗拉商业机密和保密信息。”

根据起诉书，Lemko和华为正在出售基于盗用技术的设备。

该起诉书是摩托罗拉在两年的法律纠纷中第一次提及华为。

摩托罗拉已以同样罪名起诉同一批雇员和Lemko，该案还没有解决。

摩托罗拉在起诉书中指控了一位被告金韩娟（音）。根据起诉书，她于1998年作为一名软件工程师开始为摩托罗拉工作，并于2004年左右同时为Lemko工作。在此期间，她不断接入摩托罗拉受保护的电脑，将机密信息传到她的个人电子邮件帐户。

根据起诉书，2007年2月金韩娟企图登上从芝加哥到北京的单程飞机，但被美国海关官员截住。

根据起诉书，美国海关官员发现她拿着30,000美元现金，以及涉及摩托罗拉商业机密的1,000多份纸质和电子文件。

摩托罗拉周一宣布，已决定将处于争议中的多数业务，即其无线网络部门以12亿美元出售给诺基亚西门子通信公司（Nokia Siemens Networks）。

熟悉情况的一位人士说，华为一直在负责运营摩托罗拉的网络业务，摩托罗拉曾承诺，如果有可能将网络业务出售给华为，就不再继续起诉该商业机密案。

这位熟悉情况的人说，诺基亚西门子通信公司成为竞购中的赢家后，摩托罗拉继续推进针对华为的起诉。

摩托罗拉正在查找损失并寻求找回商业机密。摩托罗拉一位女言人说，摩托罗拉将继续努力保护自己的知识产权。

华为近些年通过迫使竞争对手降低价格而将电讯业进行了重新洗牌，目前其已跻身世界三大电讯设备供应商之一。

在不断在价格方面击败竞争对手之外，华为还是长期演进项目（Long Term Evolution）主要设备供应商之一。长期演进项目是一种无线标准，其速度比旧网络更快。华为甚至在欧洲竞争对手的本土市场获取了合同。

这不是华为第一次被美国公司起诉盗窃商业机密罪。

2003年思科系统（Cisco Systems）起诉华为窃取其路由器代码，但在华为决定将其路由器产品撤出市场并进行更改后，思科系统撤诉。

2004年在芝加哥举行的贸易展上，一位华为雇员一连几个小时拍摄竞争产品的照片，被抓了现行，华为后来解雇了这名雇员。