The agreement is expected to clear the way for Motorola Solutions to complete the sale of its networking division to Nokia Siemens Networks. Analysts say that deal has been delayed partly because of the legal disputes.
Separately, in a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Motorola Solutions and Nokia Siemens said they expected to close the sale by April 29, pending approval by Chinese regulators.
The companies also said the price Nokia Siemens would pay for Motorola Solutions’ networking unit had been reduced to $975 million from $1.2 billion. The companies did not explain why the price had been reduced.
Motorola Solutions and Huawei issued a joint statement late Wednesday in Beijing. Motorola Solutions said it had agreed to drop a lawsuit filed last year in an Illinois court accusing Huawei of conspiring with several Motorola workers to steal trade secrets.
Motorola Solutions, which focuses on business customers, split off from Motorola in January.
For its part, Huawei said it had agreed to drop its lawsuit, filed early this year in Illinois, trying to block Motorola Solutions from proceeding with the sale of its networking unit because the deal involved some of Huawei’s technology.
Both sides expressed satisfaction with the agreement announced Wednesday.
“This puts us in a better position to close the transaction,” Nicholas Sweers, a Motorola Solutions spokesman, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
As part of the settlement, Motorola Solutions, which is based in Schaumburg, Ill., said it had agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of money to Huawei to compensate the company for the technology that would be part of the sale to Nokia Siemens, a joint venture between Nokia and Siemens.
Robert Haslam, a lawyer working with Huawei, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday, “We believe the payment is a vindication of Huawei’s intellectual property rights and a recognition of its value.”
Huawei, based in Shenzhen, China, is one of China’s biggest and most dynamic young companies. But it has been dogged for years by claims that it had close ties to the Chinese military and that it gained some of its telecommunications know-how by theft.
Wednesday’s settlement may bolster Huawei’s assertion that it has been developing its own intellectual property. Some years ago, the company also settled a lawsuit in which Cisco Systems had accused the company of stealing trade secrets.
Huawei is now the world’s second-largest telecommunication equipment supplier. Only the Swedish company Ericsson is bigger. But despite Huawei’s strong presence in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America, it has struggled to enter the United States market, largely because of concerns about national security and intellectual property rights.
Huawei executives insist the company has no ties to the Chinese military and say they respect intellectual property rights. They also say opponents — and perhaps competitors — are spreading rumors to prevent the company from gaining even more global market share.
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