Hytera Asks to File Motion to Dismiss Trade Secrets Indictment Under Seal

Hytera Communications seeks an order allowing it to file under seal its motion to dismiss the government’s criminal indictment for failure to present evidence of trade secrets to the grand jury. Hytera filed its motion Thursday (docket 1:20-cr-00688) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. A grand jury in May 2021 returned indictments listing 22 counts of trade secret theft against the company and seven of its engineers who developed digital mobile radios for Motorola in Malaysia beginning in 2004 (see 2301260060). The engineers quit Motorola in 2008 and 2009 to go to work for Hytera in Shenzhen, and the government alleges they took Motorola’s DMR trade secrets with them when they left. Hytera’s motion to dismiss contains citations to and excerpts of transcripts of the secret grand jury proceedings held in fall 2020 and spring 2021, plus grand jury exhibits that have been designated as sealed under the court’s Feb. 28 protective order, said the motion to file under seal. Under that protective order, five business days after service of unredacted copies of the motion to dismiss, Hytera will file the redacted papers publicly, unless it receives an application in opposition from another party within those five business days, it said.