In a David vs. Goliath storyline, a former VAR for Cisco Systems Inc. won a lawsuit against the networking giant that might spur vendors to review their partner agreements and embolden partners to speak up without fear of reprisal.

Infra-Comm was awarded $6.4 million in damages in its January 2007 lawsuit claiming Cisco stole a registered customer, which it gave to AT&T, and then canceled the VAR’s contract when it filed the suit.

Significantly, the trial judge criticized Cisco’s partner agreement for allowing the gearmaker to terminate partners without cause and claimed Cisco had unfair bargaining power.

Cisco has 60 to 90 days to file an appeal.