Cisco wins injunction against fake transceiver sellers

Cisco has won an injunction in the US against online retailers which it says are listing counterfeit versions of some of its networking equipment.

The court order requires online marketplaces – including Amazon and Alibaba - to halt the sale of the Chinese-made knockoff products, which include transceiver devices, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Cisco’s lawsuit alleges that four Chinese companies made counterfeit versions of its transceivers that it maintains could threaten US national security and health systems because the devices were more prone to fail and software would be hard to update and keep secure.

The ruling – made in the federal court for the Eastern District of New York – affects four Chinese manufacturers, namely Shenzhen Tianheng Network, Gezhi Photonics Technology, Shenzhen Sourcelight Technology and Dariocom, according to the WSJ.

It is estimated that those four companies alone account for more than half of the counterfeit transceiver market, it adds.

Cisco is now trying to win support for an industrywide effort to fight the trade in counterfeit networking equipment, and is working with consultancy Rowan TELS to try to get that initiative going.

A permanent injunction against the four Chinese companies is expected to be handed down soon.