Cisco, Huawei Settle on IP Dispute
Cisco and Huawei Technologies announced a settlement
of their intellectual property dispute. In the settlement,
Huawei agreed to modify its products' source code and
user guides, and submit them to an outside expert for
review.
Both companies are leading makers of networking equipment
for the Internet and increasingly, VoIP (voice over IP)
products. The products which were the center of contention
focused on Huawei's Quidway routers and switches. Cisco
claimed that some of the source code for the routers and
switches were direct copies of Cisco's source code, and
also claimed that some of the user guide information and
online help pages were quoted verbatim. The agreement
bars Huawei engineers who worked on the original source
code from working on the new source code for its routers.
Cisco brought a lawsuit against Huawei in a Texas court
in 2002, accusing it of "systematic and wholesale
infringement" of its intellectual property. At the
time, Huawei was ramping up expansion of its routers and
switches into the US market. The main attraction for IT
buyers was that Huawei's products were much cheaper than
Cisco's, and did not require learning new programming
languages.
Huawei has aggressively expanded into foreign markets
from its base in China, and has opened a development center
in Bangalore, India. In addition, it has signed a joint
development agreement with 3Com in certain areas. 3Com
was formerly a leading maker of networking equipment in
the US, but its position has been largely replaced by
Cisco.
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