MOSCOW, May 23 (Prime-Tass) -- Senior representatives of Motorola, Tuesday criticized the way Russian authorities handled the seizure and subsequent destruction of its handsets on the grounds they were unsafe.
"Any suggestion that Motorola products sold in Russia are not completely safe, or have not received official state safety certifications, is absolutely false," the company's corporate vice president, Greg Estell, said in a statement.
Russian police seized 167,500 mobile phones destined for electronics retailer Euroset at the end of March, alleging they were counterfeit. They later destroyed 50,000 C115 handsets, which they said were unsafe for sale to consumers.
Scott Offer, Motorola's vice president for legal matters, told a press conference Russian police "received a report from a non-accredited test house, which reached the wrong conclusions."
He said Motorola was exploring all legal remedies open to it and plans to start court proceedings in the near future. "We will pick our targets carefully," he said, although declined to give further details.
Offer said Motorola had been discussing the issue with the Russian authorities and that the remaining 117,500 handsets would be retained as evidence and wouldn't be destroyed.
Estell in the statement said Motorola has received support from within the government and was "extremely encouraged" by what it had heard from them recently.
The issue of corruption was a major part of President Vladimir Putin's recent state-of-the-nation address. The customs service, which often has the finger pointed at it in relation to grey imports of goods, was subsequently brought under the control of Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
Fradkov and Economy Minister German Gref also discussed corruption during a meeting last week.
Motorola also disputed a patent claim made against it by a small Russian company.
"The claims by RUS GPS that Motorola infringed its patent are without merit," Alan Buddendeck, Motorola's head of global communications, told journalists.
"Moreover, the claims are suspicious in light of the recent seizures and destruction of our products," he added.
Offer said RUS GPS has no basis on which to challenge Motorola and expressed surprise that the claim was being made via the criminal courts rather than the arbitration courts, which usually deal with such disputes.
"We believe this is an opportunistic attempt to ride on a bandwagon of some momentum," he said.
Offer said lawsuits in relation to defamation, abuse of patent rights and unfair competition would be initiated against RUS GPS "within days."
He also said Motorola lawyers were investigating possible connections between RUS GPS and Rimco-XXI, which claims to have filed the patent in question originally before selling the rights to RUS GPS.
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Posted to the site on 24th May 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/17520.php