On 20 November 2018, the Regional Court of Düsseldorf in Germany issued a first-instance ruling that a limited number of Hytera's legacy DMR products infringed a German part of a European Patent of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (MSI). However, the Court rejected MSI’s requests to order the recall and destruction of the covered products.
The decisions of the Düsseldorf Court are not final and can be appealed. Hytera believes our products do not infringe any of our competitor's valid patents. We further believe MSI's European Patent 2342851 B1 is invalid over prior art. Hytera’s German subsidiary has sought to invalidate this patent in the court, and a decision is pending.
MSI's European Parent EP 2342851 B1 is for a "Method of efficiently synchronizing to a desired timeslot in a time division multiple access communication system. The subject matter at issue includes whether TDMA synchronization patterns are designated to specific timeslots or to characters of timeslots, and therefore whether there is one specific set of synchronization patterns for each timeslot. We believe the Court's ruling overlooks aspects of Hytera's technology that distinguish our products from those of our competitor.
These first-instance decisions of the Düsseldorf Court are enforceable on provision by MSI of a security bond. Hytera will comply with the Court's decisions while we consider whether to appeal the Düsseldorf Court's decision.
Earlier this year, Hytera issued its Release 9.0 firmware for DMR products, a release that has been well received globally. This firmware introduced a substantial number of innovative features for our DMR products. It does not include the functionality at issue in the case in the Düsseldorf Court.
On 16 November 2018, in a separate case not pertaining to the German proceedings, the United States ITC Commission ruled in its Final Determination that Hytera’s new generation DMR products do not infringe MSI’s asserted patents.
Any suggestion that Hytera may not sell any DMR products in Europe as a result of this decision or other legal proceedings in Germany is misleading and incorrect. Hytera will continue to deliver innovative, high-quality professional mobile radio solutions to our dealers and customers in Germany, across Europe, and around the world.
