We at GLOBALIZATION FOLLIES never want to see anyone victimized by intellectual property theft, and least of all, an American-owned company.  Still, there was an unmistakable “just desserts” aspects to Motorola’s decision last week to sue a Chinese competitor for running a multi-year operation to steal its latest technology.

Since the early 1990s, of course, Motorola has been a leading corporate outsourcer, and has lobbied Congress with special vigor to expand outsourcing opportunities in China.  Naturally, it’s also a leading advocate of appeasing China’s plethora of predatory trade practices – many of which protect or subsidize the firm’s billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese-made products.

As a result, during the legislative battles over renewing China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, and above all admitting China to the World Trade Organization, Motorola lobbyists blanketed Congress and the press with statements like the following: “In recent years, we have seen encouraging progress by China in removing various impediments common to global commerce.  China has fostered protection for intellectual property....”  Nine years later, Motorola’s new suit against Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei reveals that this claim was premature at best.

Also revealing is the company’s decision to sue in a U.S. district court.  In testimony during the WTO debate, a Motorola bigwig declared that adding China to the organization “gives us an opportunity for the first time to enforce a trade agreement” with the People’s Republic “and for once, we will not stand alone and put U.S. exports at risk....”  But despite predicting that American producers would have “the backup of 134 other nations” when pressing complaints in the new institution, Motorola seems to believe that there’s no substitute for America’s legal system saving its own skin.

A final irony: Motorola is a prominent supporter of legislation before Congress that would significantly weaken the very national system of intellectual property protection that the company clearly is relying on in its suit against Huawei.  

Motorola has every right to promote its interests in any legal manner.  But maybe Washington will finally stop mistaking its self-serving public hypocrisies for sound policy advice.

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