Motorola Inc. announced it filed a lawsuit in federal court in Miami to stop ICT International Cellular Telephone in Florida and Fred Posada from importing and selling unauthorized Motorola two-way radios in the United States.
The lawsuit charges both ICT and Posada with copyright and trademark infringements, false designation of origin and false advertising.
Motorola’s complaint alleges the defendants are importing and selling in the United States and Latin America copyrighted Motorola two-way radios that are different than genuine Motorola two-way radios. In addition, none of the radios has the required Federal Communications Commission ID tags and therefore cannot be sold legally within the United States, said Motorola.
Harris Buchbinder of Buchbinder & Elegant, the law firm representing ICT, said ICT denies they obtained any product that was not manufactured or authorized to be sold by Motorola.
“It is a legitimate product we purchased through authorized dealers. We’ve been asked to be authorized dealers. After we refused, Motorola has taken this tactic for the purposes of controlling prices,” Buchbinder said. “We’re considering taking action against Motorola for defamation, unfair competition and interfering with a favorable business relationship.”
According to Motorola’s complaint, the radios being illegally imported and sold by ICT include Motorola’s GP68 and GP88 PRO Series, which are manufactured in Tianjin, China, and Penang, Malaysia.
Motorola’s complaint also states the defendants have made false and misleading statements in their advertising materials regarding the illegally imported radios.
According to the lawsuit, the statements say the GP88 radio is the same as the GP300 radio, the GP68 and GP88 radios are expandable over 470 MHz, and the users of GP68 and GP88 radios can enter operating frequencies directly onto the radio’s keypad.
The complaint also states the defendants violated Motorola’s rights when they copied Motorola’s brochures covering the GP68, GM300 and SP50 two-way radios.
