Airvana Networks has won a preliminary injunction against Ericsson in a trade-secrets lawsuit that seeks more than $330 million from the Swedish telecommunications network equipment maker.
State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapnick ruled that Airvana had shown it was likely to succeed on the merits of its lawsuit and would suffer irreparable harm if the injunction were not granted. Under the injunction Ericsson cannot use certain hardware unless it employs software developed by Airvana.
Airvana said Ericsson stole its trade secrets and tried to drive it out of business by working with a Korean partner to create "knock-off" hardware based on its technology. This would then be flogged to wireless carriers Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel. Airvana accused Ericsson of attempting to replace Airvana's design with a so-called "in-house" product that is based on Airvana's work.
Ericsson claimed that it had modified Airvana's designs to the point where the new hardware was no longer "based on" Airvana's design. But the Judge disagreed saying that the hardware in question was based on Airvana's work.
Nicked our trade secrets claim
Nick Farrell
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