Huawei admits to a little copying

Huawei Technologies said in court papers filed this week that it used some of Cisco Systems' source code in its routers.

But the Chinese manufacturer said the copying was inadvertent and involved far less code than Cisco claims. Huawei also said the offending code has since been removed.

Even so, Cisco said in a statement, the admission is "further evidence that Huawei has unlawfully acquired and used Cisco's intellectual property."

Cisco sued Huawei in U.S. District Court for the

It was on a disk passed from one Huawei employee to another, who then incorporated the code into what he was working on, according to the paperwork.

Huawei, based in Shenzhen, China, has a wide reach in Asia and recently entered the U.S. market, challenging Cisco on the pricing front. It's now working with Cisco competitor 3Com to deliver new networking gear to businesses.