Cisco drops Huawei suit

Plus: Verizon and BellSouth score higher quarterly earnings and Alcatel invests in Tropic Networks.

Cisco dropped its copyright lawsuit against Huawei Technologies after confirming that the China network vendor stopped sales of disputed products and changed the look of its software and user manuals. Cisco alleged that Huawei used a replica of Cisco’s command-line interface, as well as pieces of Cisco IOS source code in its products, and that it distributed material from Cisco product manuals. “We are pleased to conclude the litigation as a result of the steps that were taken to address our concerns,” Mark Chandler, Cisco’s vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. Cisco sued Huawei, China’s largest telecom equipment vendor, in U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas, 18 months ago. (Read the story)

Verizon and BellSouth recorded higher quarterly earnings on growth in wireless and data services. Earnings for SBC, meanwhile, declined 14% in the second quarter due to labor-related costs. Excluding those costs, SBC said its earnings still would have been down 7% from a year ago. Verizon posted second-quarter 2004 earnings of $1.8 billion, or 64 cents per diluted share, driven by year-over-year revenue growth of 6% overall and 25% in wireless. Net earnings were up more than five times from a year ago. (Read the story)

Alcatel said it is investing an undisclosed amount in Tropic Networks, a maker of reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADM). Alcatel said it will also market and distribute Tropic’s products worldwide, and that the company will have a seat on Tropic’s board of directors. The deal may have been precipitated by a joint bid the two companies have at SBC. SBC has RFPs on the street for ROADMs and optical switches, and the Alcatel/Tropic duo is considered by watchers to be one of the strong contenders for the ROADM business. (Read the story)