A Year-long legal battle between Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Co. and US-based Cisco Systems Inc. ended Wednesday.

Cisco, Huawei and 3Com Corp. applied to end the proceedings and the application was approved by the US District Court in Marshall, Texas, on Wednesday.

Cisco filed a lawsuit against Huawei on Jan. 22, 2003, alleging Huawei had illegally copied and misappropriated software associated with Cisco networking equipment, including source code and user manuals, and infringed several Cisco patents.

Huawei in late March admitted that an employee had copied 2 percent of the router operating software from Cisco but insisted the company did not know of the violation. The company claimed Cisco's real intention in filing the suit was to bar Huawei products from entering the US market.

In March last year, US-based 3Com and Huawei announced that they were setting up a joint venture in Hong Kong.

3Com Corp. intervened in the suit on behalf of Huawei in June last year.

In the same month, a federal judge for the Eastern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction barring Huawei from selling products incorporating the intellectual property in dispute.

On Oct. 1, 2003, Cisco and Huawei issued a statement that they had agreed to stay, or put on hold, Cisco's suit.

The Marshall court ruled Wednesday that Cisco should not file the same or any similar suit against Huawei in the future.

Cisco sought monetary damages as part of its complaint, but Huawei declined to comment on the agreement reached by the three parties.

(Shenzhen Daily July 29, 2004)