Paglee wrote about the reverse engineering on his blog, and said he has been asked not to reveal the name of the company.

The 10-person Chinese company, which has received venture capital funding, is planning to release in two weeks three software components based on the Skype protocol that would allow developers to create compatible applications, Paglee said. Those components comprise voice and instant messaging functions, he said.

Skype's protocol is proprietary so third party developers have not been able to build compatible applications. Some other VoIP applications are based on the open SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) standard, enabling third party developers to create interoperable products.

Skype, a unit of eBay Inc., said Friday it is aware of the claim but had "no evidence to suggest that this is true."

"Even if it was possible to do this, the software code would lack the feature set and reliability of Skype," according to a statement from Skype. "Moreover, no amount of reverse engineering would threaten Skype's cryptographic security or integrity."

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