Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. has won a temporary restraining order from the U.S. District Court for Northern District of Illinois to prevent Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) from sharing "confidential information" with Nokia Networks upon completion of its acquisition of Motorola. (See Huawei Sues to Block Moto Sale to NSN.)

The court granted part of Huawei's motion for a temporary restraining order and denied part of it as well. Huawei was not able to identify the element of its legal motion that the court denied as this article was published.

The court order mandates that Motorola is not to share any of Huawei's confidential information with Nokia Siemens. It also requires notification of any decision taken by MOFCOM (Ministry of Commerce for the People's Republic of China) regarding the acquisition.

In addition, the court order mandates the following: "Plaintiff [Huawei] and Motorola are ordered to agree upon the terms of a protective order and submit their proposed order to the Court's proposed order mailbox within 24 hours."

"We welcome this Temporary Restraining Order," said a Huawei spokesperson in an emailed response to Light Reading. "Huawei is seeking to protect its intellectual property and business secrets. This complaint is focused on stopping Motorola from illegally transferring Huawei’s intellectual property to a third party. This transaction, if not amended by the courts, threatens Huawei’s multibillion[-dollar] GSM, UMTS and Core Network business. Huawei is confident that the court will see the merits of its case."

Why this matters
While the temporary restraining order does not block Nokia Siemens' acquisition of Motorola, it looks like it will add time and money to the whole M&A process, which could result in the deal being delayed beyond its completion target of the end of the first quarter this year.

The length of a delay, if any, however, is not clear. But this move by Huawei certainly adds a whole new layer of legal procedure and administration to an already lengthy process.

For more
For all the sordid details on Nokia Siemens' attempt to expand into North America with the acquisition of Motorola's wireless infrastructure business, please see these stories:

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile