By Karen Freifeld
Oct 30 (Reuters) - Chinese wireless device manufacturer Quectel sued rival Telit on Friday, accusing it of a disinformation campaign that harmed Quectel's customer relationships and led the Pentagon to add it to a list of companies allegedly aiding Beijing's military.
Telit made and promoted false and misleading claims that Quectel's modules operate in a way that allows manipulation by the Chinese government, according to the lawsuit, filed in US District Court in the Southern District of Florida.
Quectel is a leading supplier of Internet of Things (IoT) modules and Boca Raton, Florida-based Telit is a competitor.
"Rather than competing on the merits of their products, Telit engaged in a sophisticated and widespread disparagement campaign to exploit geopolitical concerns surrounding Chinese technology companies," Quectel said in its complaint.
Telit, which operates as Telit Cinterion, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Telit IoT Solutions is the named defendant.
The Pentagon added Quectel in January to its list of companies it says work with China's military. The company sued the Pentagon in May, denying the allegation and saying it was causing it serious economic harm. The lawsuit is ongoing.
The US Department of Defense is barred from procuring goods, services or technology from companies on the list.
Quectel sued Telit on Friday for commercial disparagement, false advertising, cybersquatting, unfair competition and deceptive and unfair trade practices. The lawsuit says a Telit employee registered a quectel.us domain name and the company used it to redirect traffic to a disparaging Wikipedia page.
"Quectel cannot remotely control its IoT modules sold in the United States, send or receive data to and from those modules, or remotely deploy firmware-over-the-air updates to them," the lawsuit said. "Yet Telit promoted these false allegations while presenting itself to customers as a safer 'Western' alternative."
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Xevi Fontdegloria)