Chinese telecoms maker Huawei Technologies today rejected allegations by Motorola that it had stolen technology secrets from the US mobile phone giant over the past decade.
Motorola is suing Huawei in the United States, alleging the Chinese company worked with more than a dozen Motorola employees to secure detailed confidential information about its cellular network equipment, the Wall Street Journal said.
Huawei, which is currently trying to secure its first major deal in the United States, said the accusations were "groundless and utterly without merit".
"Huawei will vigorously defend itself against baseless allegations," the Chinese firm said in a statement sent to AFP.
"As an active and significant player in global standards-setting bodies, Huawei has great respect for the rights of intellectual property holders, and will with equal vigour protect its own hard-earned intellectual property rights."
The case is being heard in a federal court in the US state of Illinois, home to Motorola's corporate headquarters.
Motorola claims one of its employees, Shaowei Pan, secretly reported to Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, a former People's Liberation Army engineer, for years while working at the US company, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Pan then left to help set up a company called Lemko Corp with the alleged purpose of stealing more secrets from Motorola, the report said.
Motorola claims Huawei and Lemko are now selling equipment based on the stolen technology.
It is the first time Motorola has named Huawei in the two-year-old legal proceedings, which also include the former employees and Lemko, the newspaper said.
Huawei denied it had any relationship with Lemko, other than a "reseller agreement".
It is not the first time Huawei has been accused of stealing trade secrets.
In 2003, US high tech giant Cisco Systems alleged the Chinese firm "unlawfully copied and misappropriated" Cisco's software for directing Internet traffic.
Cisco later dropped the case after Huawei agreed to change its router and switch products.
The latest legal action comes at a critical time for Huawei, which is trying to increase its presence in the US telecoms market despite concerns in Washington about its possible close ties to China's army.
Huawei, which also makes mobile phones, was forced in 2008 to abandon a joint $2.2-billion bid for US technology firm 3Com due to security concerns.
