托罗拉(Motorola Inc.) 起诉华为技术有限公司窃取其商业秘密一案可能会让华为多年的努力受损。经过多年的努力，这家中国电信设备公司较为成功地将自己打造成为一名行业创新者。
现在断言谁将胜诉还为时过早。上周，摩托罗拉向伊利诺伊州北部的美国地区法院提起诉讼，称华为多年进行一项精心策划的、窃取摩托罗拉最新技术的秘密计划。周四，华为说将竭力捍卫自己的权益，并称这一指控“毫无依据”。
这起案件让人联想起华为过去几次与侵犯知识产权有关的争斗，其中最著名的是思科系统公司(Cisco Systems Inc.)于2003年指控华为盗取了它的路由器代码。在华为同意停售其路由器产品并对其进行修改之后，思科撤诉，但此案让这家中国公司深感难堪。
专 注于技术行业的北京咨询公司──BDA中国(BDA China Ltd.)的董事长克拉克(Duncan Clark)说，摩托罗拉专挑华为的痛处戳，华为在全世界的电信公司中赢得了许多追随者。目前的关键问题在于用户的看法，他们是把此事当作一起合理的案 件，还是把它当成是一个被激怒且受到威胁的既得利益者的反击之术。
攻击华为也可能给摩托罗拉的在华业务带来风险。中国拥有8亿个手机帐户，位居全球之首。许多中国人视华为公司为国家楷模。华为或许是全世界最成功的中国公司。在中国政府一直在促进自主技术发展之时，国内视华为公司为创新的发动机。
近 年来，华为大力投资研发领域，努力向客户展示其自主研发的技术不但是世界级的技术，并且比竞争对手的价格低廉。它取得了巨大的进展，与英国电信公司(BT Group PLC)、荷兰运营商KPN NV、西班牙Telefonica SA和德国电信(Deutsche Telekom AG)签订了多项主要的先进设备合同。
华为公布2009年实现收入人民币1,491亿元（约合220亿美元），较2005年人民币483 亿元的收入增长了两倍以上。据研究公司Dell'Oro Group Inc.的数据，华为在全球移动基础设施收入中的份额从2006年四季度的仅2%增长到2009年四季度的20%，仅次于诺基亚西门子通信公司 (Nokia Siemens Networks，21%)和Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson（35%）排在第三位。
华 为的快速增长重塑了全球电信设备业，迫使竞争对手们降低价格。分析人士说，目前华为是长期演化(LTE)设备全球主要供应商之一。LTE是一种无线标准， 传输速度比老式网络快。据世界知识产权组织(World Intellectual Property Organization)的数据，去年华为的专利申请数量位列第二。
国际数据公司(IDC)驻香港分析师罗杰斯(Bill Rojas)说，摩托罗拉的指控即使未经证实，也可能给华为在美国的业务扩张增加难度。华为在美国不如在其他市场成功。尽管如此，罗杰斯说，指控本身不足 以影响华为的销售。他说，他们有很多热衷于其产品的客户，他们提供非常好的服务。正因为如此，他们在全球赢得了一些非常大的合同。
摩托罗 拉在起诉书中称，有13名摩托罗拉员工通过一家名为Lemko Corp.的挂名公司把技术交给了华为。Lemko和摩托罗拉一样，也位于伊利诺伊州的绍姆堡(Schaumburg)。现在，这些员工都已不在摩托罗拉 工作。摩托罗拉正在寻求损害赔偿以及归还其商业秘密。
总部位于深圳的华为说，除了作为供应商之外，华为与Lemko没有其他关系。Lemko在提交给法院的文件中说，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。
据 一位知情人士透露，此前华为在竞购摩托罗拉的网络业务，摩托罗拉在考虑将业务出售给华为时，没有寻求对华为提起诉讼。这位知情人士说，现在既然诺基亚西门 子通信公司同意以12亿美元的价格收购摩托罗拉的网络业务，摩托罗拉开始推进对华为的起诉。诺基亚西门子通信公司是诺基亚(Nokia Corp.)和西门子(Siemens AG)成立的合资企业。
摩托罗拉在与诺基亚西门子通信公司交易的声明中说，它将保留“几乎所有与无线网络基础设施业务有关的专利”，这意味着如果它赢得这场知识产权官司，可能会从中获得商业利益。不过罗杰斯说，不然，我们实际上对摩托罗拉能从这起诉讼案中获得什么好处感到非常不解。
Motorola Inc.'s (MOT) lawsuit against Huawei Technologies Co. alleging a plot to steal the U.S. company's trade secrets could complicate years of largely successful efforts by the Chinese telecommunications-equipment company to demonstrate itself as an innovator in the industry.
It's far too early to know who will prevail in the lawsuit, which was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Northern Illinois. Motorola's complaint alleges Huawei engaged in an elaborate scheme over a number of years to steal Motorola's latest technology. Huawei said Thursday it will vigorously defend itself against the allegations, which it said are 'utterly without merit.'
The spat has drawn attention to Huawei's past battles over allegations of intellectual property violations, most notably Cisco Systems Inc.'s (CSCO) assertions in 2003 that Huawei stole its router code. Cisco dropped that suit after Huawei agreed to remove its router products from the market and change them, but the incident was deeply embarrassing for the Chinese company.
(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)
'Motorola is trying to hit [Huawei] where it hurts,' said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China, a Beijing-based consulting firm focused on technology. 'Huawei has won many converts amongst [telecom companies] worldwide,' he said. 'The key now is to see whether customers view this as a justified case or the [tactical] response of an embittered and threatened incumbent.'
Attacking Huawei, considered a national champion by many in China, could also pose a risk for Motorola in the country, which has 800 million cellphone accounts, the most of any nation. Huawei is perhaps China's most successful company internationally, and is seen domestically as an innovation powerhouse at a time when the government has been promoting the development of domestic technology.
Huawei has invested heavily in research and development in recent years in efforts to show customers its home-grown technology is world-class, as well as less expensive than that of its competitors. It has made huge headway, winning major contracts for cutting-edge equipment with British telecom company BT Group PLC (BT, BT.A.LN), Dutch carrier KPN NV, Spain's Telefonica SA (TEF, TEF.MC) and Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE.XE, DTEGY).
Huawei reported revenue for 2009 of 149.1 billion yuan, or about $22 billion, more than triple its 2005 level of 48.3 billion yuan. Huawei's share of global mobile infrastructure revenue grew from just 2% in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 20% in the fourth quarter of 2009--ranking it third behind Nokia Siemens Networks, with a 21% share, and Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson (ERIC), which had 35%, according to research firm Dell'Oro Group Inc.
Huawei's rapid growth has reshaped the global telecom equipment industry, forcing competitors to lower their prices. Analysts say Huawei is now one of the leading vendors globally of equipment for Long Term Evolution, or LTE, a wireless standard that allows higher traffic speeds than older networks. The company ranked second in patent applications last year, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Bill Rojas, analyst for IDC in Hong Kong, said Motorola's allegations, even though unproven, could add to Huawei's difficulties expanding in the U.S., where it has been less successful than in other markets. Still, Rojas said the allegations alone aren't enough to hurt Huawei's sales. 'They have a lot of happy customers and they provide very good service. That's why they've won some very big [contracts] around the world,' he said.
Motorola's complaint alleged that 13 employees passed its technology to Huawei through a front company called Lemko Corp., which like Motorola is based in Schaumburg, Ill. None of the employees currently work at Motorola. Motorola is seeking damages and the return of its trade secrets.
Huawei, headquartered in Shenzhen, said it has no relationship with Lemko other than as a supplier. Lemko said in its court filings that Motorola has falsely attacked it in an attempt to put it out of business and take over its proprietary technology.
A person familiar with the situation said Huawei had been in the running to buy Motorola's networks business, and the U.S. company refrained from pursuing the lawsuit against Huawei while it considered selling the business to the Chinese company. Motorola is proceeding with the legal case against Huawei now that Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Nokia Corp. (NOK) and Siemens AG (SI, SIE.XE), has agreed to buy the business for $1.2 billion, the person said.
Motorola said in its announcement of the deal with Nokia Siemens Networks that it would retain 'substantially all the patents related to its wireless network infrastructure business,' which suggests it may benefit commercially from winning this intellectual property dispute. But otherwise, Rojas said 'We're actually quite mystified as to what benefit there would be to Motorola' from the lawsuit.