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Huawei accuses former manager Ronnie Huang of stealing trade secrets and luring away staff to build rival start-up CNEX labs

  • Chinese telecoms giant says spelling errors in its documents were repeated in proposals Huang used to start chip-making firm three days after leaving Huawei
  • Trade secrets trial has become flashpoint in allegations by Washington that Huawei gear is threat to US security

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The Huawei logo is displayed during the 5G is On event in Madrid, Spain, on Wednesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

A former engineering manager used Huawei Technologies trade secrets and lured away 24 of its employees to improperly build his start-up company, a lawyer for the Chinese telecommunications firm told a Texas jury on Tuesday.

The trade secrets trial, which has become a flashpoint in allegations by the United States government that Huawei gear is a threat to US security, began with the Huawei lawyer showing jurors that spelling errors in its internal documents were repeated in proposals a former manager used to start chip maker CNEX Labs three days after leaving Huawei.

Huawei sued former manager Ronnie Huang and his CNEX seeking at least US$85.7 million in damages and rights to its memory-control technology.

Huang, who countersued Huawei and denies the company’s allegations, was expected to testify on Tuesday.

An undated photo of a CNEX Labs chip tray. Photo: CNEX Labs via Reuters
An undated photo of a CNEX Labs chip tray. Photo: CNEX Labs via Reuters

In addition to showing jurors the documents’ common misspellings, Huawei lawyer Michael Wexler played excerpts of a video deposition in which another former employee admitted to copying 5,760 files from his work computer before leaving Huawei to join CNEX.

“Think of the spelling mistakes as DNA,” Wexler said in his opening statement to an eight-person jury in US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. “Stealing technology is wrong.”

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