Cisco expands Huawei charges

Cisco Systems has broadened its allegations against Huawei Technologies, accusing the Shenzhen-based firm of having infringed the American company's intellectual property rights to a greater extent than Huawei previously admitted.

In a 19-page motion to the United States District Court in Texas, Cisco said it had discovered new evidence showing Huawei routers identified themselves to a network as being Cisco products.

'This false identification must result from Huawei having copied Cisco's [data link switching] protocol source code, unless Huawei deliberately programmed its routers to identify them as having been manufactured by Cisco,' the company said in its filing.

Cisco also accused Huawei of continuing to 'enjoy the fruits of its misappropriation of Cisco source code and the infringement of Cisco copyrights' despite Cisco's first suit in January.

According to Cisco, Huawei admitted to copying its enhanced interior gateway routing protocol (EIGRP), which made up just 2 per cent of Huawei's versatile routing platform.

But Cisco claimed the copying showed Huawei had attempted to make its products 'virtually identical' to the commands of Cisco's routing software.

'Even if Huawei were correct as to the percentage of its code which was taken from Cisco, the importance of the literal copying far exceeded the numerical percentage,' it said.

Cisco spokesman Terry Alberstein said: 'Trusting Huawei to tell the court and the customers that they have only copied 2 per cent is kind of like saying you were caught with your hand in the cookie jar and you tell how many cookies you had.'

Huawei halted selling some products in the US market after Cisco's filing in January. It also disabled some of the programmes on its routers.

'They have disabled a few commands that makes Windows EIGRP not work,' Mr Alberstein said.

'It is like putting a bandage on something where it requires surgery. The code is still there. They are also distributing an enabled version of EIGRP on their China Web site which can be accessed by the United States market, too.'

Cisco said in its filing: 'Huawei had every intention of continuing its use of Cisco's source code and technology and profiting from the misappropriation to the maximum extent possible.'

Cisco asked the court to issue an injunction to protect its rights and prevent Huawei from transferring Cisco's intellectual property to a third party.

Huawei said its lawyers were studying Cisco's latest allegation.

'We feel that they are just repeating their previous claim,' spokesman Fu Jun said. 'Cisco's action is anti-competitive.'

Both sides said they were open to a settlement out of court, as expected by analysts.

'We have already removed those controversial parts of our products and stopped selling them,' Mr Fu said. 'It shows our sincerity [in working] towards a settlement.'