Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies has rejected allegations by Motorola of industrial espionage, the Wall Street Journal reported.

 

Reporting on developments after Motorola filed suit in mid-July against Huawei, the report said that the Chinese company called the allegations "groundless and utterly without merit."

 

The denial came after reports emerged that Motorola had filed suit claiming that Huawei had worked with more than a dozen Motorola employees to gain confidential information about its cellular network equipment. As evidence, Motorola presented the federal court in Illinois with e-mail correspondence between the now former employees and Huawei management, the report said.

 

The industrial espionage took place over a number of years, said the report, with Motorola alleging that Huawei founder and supervisory board chairman Ren Zhengfei himself was involved, the report said. The corporate espionage allegations come at a time when Motorola is withdrawing from the wireless network field, after reaching a deal to sell its wireless network infrastructure to the Nokia Siemens Networks company for $1.2 billion.