With a damning report from the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence creating global headlines,
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. 's damage limitation team will be very focused on the here and now. (See
US vs Huawei/ZTE: The Verdict.)
But being in the spotlight means past skirmishes can also be revived to pile on the pressure.
The Chinese vendor has had its fair share of scrapes but the most notorious is the intellectual property run-in with
Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) in 2003-2004, an incident still regularly cited by telecom industry executives when Huawei's development as a company is discussed. (See
Cisco Drops Huawei Suit and
Cisco/Huawei Lawsuit on Hold.)
Now that case is back in play following a public statement by Charles Ding, Huawei's senior vice president and chief representative in the U.S., that spawned a blog post by Mark Chandler, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Cisco.
As Chandler explains in
this blog, dated Oct. 1, Ding's version of events did not match the details contained in court and corporate reports. So he challenged Huawei to clear up the matter once and for all by publishing the full details that have, until now, been kept under wraps by both parties.
With nothing forthcoming from Huawei, Chandler took to his blog again on Oct. 11 to "set forth the facts" that counter Ding's statements that "misstate the facts and therefore merit a direct, factually accurate and proportionate response."
You can
read that blog here. Needless to say it does not cover Huawei in glory.
And it seems this is not the end of the matter. Chandler is still encouraging Huawei to "publish the full Neutral Expert's Final Report in order to clarify what actually happened in the litigation, overcome any confusion and demonstrate their purported transparent business practices and respect for intellectual property rights."
— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor,
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