Cisco calls halt to Huawei saga
Networking giant claims victory after dropping intellectual property suit against Chinese vendor
Cisco, 3Com and Huawei have filed to resolve a lawsuit launched by Cisco against the Chinese networking vendor in January 2003.
Cisco claimed it had achieved "a victory for the protection of intellectual property rights".
In a statement the networking giant said: "[Huawei has] agreed to change its command line interface, user manuals, help screens and portions of its source code to address Cisco's concerns."
The firms agreed to a third-party review of Huawei's products in October, and Huawei voluntarily removed from sale products named in the suit.
Mark Chandler, vice-president at Cisco, said: "We are pleased to conclude the litigation as a result of the steps that were taken to address our concerns."
Both Huawei and 3Com - which operate a joint venture to market Huawei's products outside mainland China - noted that the suit, brought in the US District Court Eastern Court of Texas, had resulted in a 'dismissal with prejudice'.
Such a dismissal means the same or substantially similar claims cannot be made again by Cisco. All parties must bear their own costs, Huawei said. The content of the settlement agreement is, however, confidential.
Tim Bamford, head of intellectual property at law firm Charles Russell, said: "In the US, as in the UK, most claims are settled before they go to trial. There is always an element of risk, and if you settle, it removes that element.
"With patent litigation in particular, you never know what might come out of the woodwork."
At the same time as filing the lawsuit against Huawei, Cisco sent a 'cease and desist' letter to UK distributor Spot, which had agreed to distribute Huawei's data networking products in the UK.
Spot has since dropped Huawei from its product line-up. However, the suit does not appear to have damaged Huawei's sales.
"Huawei is pleased to report that, during the past year, sales in the international markets and the data communications area have doubled, and we look forward to continued market leadership," the company said in a statement.