'Common sense prevails' for Cisco and Huawei

Legal squabble over source code intellectual property nears an end

The legal battle between Cisco and Huawei is almost over after Huawei agreed to make changes to its source code and user manuals and Cisco agreed to halt proceedings to its copyright lawsuit.

Cisco filed a suit earlier this year against the Chinese vendor, alleging the unlawful copying of its intellectual property.

"We are pleased to have reached an agreement that we hope will result in resolution of the litigation. As part of the agreement, Huawei has stopped selling the products at issue in Cisco's lawsuit," Cisco said in a statement.

The lawsuit will officially end on completion of an independent review of the disputed products.

Terry Connor, managing director of Huawei distributor Spot Distribution, said: "Common sense prevails. We have quite a few resellers selling Huawei products because, despite the litigation, we have carried on pushing the products."

The decision is good news for vendor 3Com, which entered the fray in June by asking a court to declare that it had not infringed intellectual property following its OEM version of a Huawei product. 3Com is also forming a joint venture with Huawei.

Mark Fabbi, vice president of research firm Gartner, said the joint venture will have little competitive impact on Cisco in the short term, but could eat into the networking giant's market share in the long term.