However, the Chinese company said it would "vigorously" defend itself against Cisco's claims of patent violation.

"Huawei is an innovative and pioneering company that has always greatly valued and respected both its own and other companies' intellectual property rights," Huawei said in a statement.

Last month, Cisco filed a patent and copyright-infringement lawsuit against Huawei, claiming the company illegally copied software, documentation and other aspects from Cisco products. It claims at least five patents were infringed.

The lawsuit contends that Huawei's infringement ranged from the verbatim copying of Cisco technical documentation to programming codes, including sections that are used for testing but don't function in the final products.

Huawei said the products under contention were a small part of its overall U.S. business and that the parts of the software in question were "small and unimportant."

It accused Cisco of using litigation to "enhance its market position."

(eastday.com February 8, 2003)