As part of ongoing efforts to enforce and collect on Kirkland’s February 2020 jury verdict on behalf of Motorola Solutions in its long-running trade secrets and copyright infringement case against Hytera, Kirkland found that Hytera was selling off its Spanish subsidiary. Kirkland immediately filed a contempt motion seeking escrow and turnover of the $88 million sale proceeds based on violations of the court order restricting Hytera’s asset transfers. After an initial hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Hytera immediately paid Motorola $32 million of the sale proceeds and weeks later paid another $37 million after Kirkland contested Hytera’s Chinese banks’ supposed priority to the funds.

In August 2025, the team also secured two other significant wins defeating Hytera’s ongoing efforts to avoid paying Motorola ongoing royalties from its continued sales. First, the district court granted Motorola’s motion to hold Hytera in contempt for failing to pay royalties, finding Hytera’s purportedly redesigned H-Series radios still leveraged Motorola’s trade secrets. The court ordered Hytera to pay over $70 million in past-due royalties and interest and ordered Hytera to pay royalties to Motorola on worldwide sales of those products going forward. The ruling was the result of a year-long post-verdict investigation. As part of the contempt proceedings, the district court also ordered that Hytera must pay $5 million in daily fines to the court that were imposed to coerce Hytera to dismiss its Chinese action.

We asked, what kind of a world would this be if a big company could sidestep responsibility by simply saying, ‘That was them, not us.’ This was a significant message to all other companies considering this type of excuse for bad conduct.” - Adam Alper

This positive outcome, in combination with the findings of other Courts in jurisdictions around the world, further validates Motorola Solutions’ global litigation against Hytera.” - Mike De Vries

These victories build upon the 2020 jury verdict, which was confirmed on appeal at $543.7 million, making it the largest standing confirmed trade secret award in U.S. history.