December 21, 2001
(Computerworld)
Xerox Corp. won a key federal court ruling that found that 3Com Corp. and Palm Inc. infringed upon the patent for its handwriting-recognition software with the Graffiti software used in Palm handhelds.
Palm, in Santa Clara, Calif., said it will appeal the ruling by federal Judge Michael Telesca, adding that Palm's Graffiti software doesn't infringe upon a patent granted to Rochester, N.Y.-based Xerox for its Unistroke handwriting-recognition software.
Xerox said the patent-infringement ruling yesterday in the U.S. District Court of Western New York ends the liability portion of the case and clears the way for the company to seek damages in the next phase of the trial. If the court finds that the infringement was willful, both 3Com and Palm would be liable for triple damages, said Christina Layton, Xerox's general counsel, in a statement. Based on the ruling, "either Palm will have to cease production of its handheld organizer or license the technology from Xerox," she said.
Xerox sued U.S. Robotics, which was later acquired by 3Com, in April 1997 and charged that the Graffiti software used in Palm handheld organizers infringed upon Xerox's patent for its Unistrokes handwriting-recognition software, which was developed at the company's Palo Alto Research Center, Xerox said. 3Com spun off Palm in early 2000 (see story).
Craig Mathias, an analyst at Farpoint Group in Ashland Mass., said obtaining a license and paying royalties "would be the easiest way" for Palm to resolve the dispute. But, he added, "they're probably not crazy about that considering the state of their revenues."
Eric Benhamou, chairman and CEO of Palm, said in a statement that the company has "strong arguments to support its defense" on the appeal of the patent suit, adding that the litigation doesn't affect the company's business strategy, its business model or its licensee.
Sondra Magness, a spokeswoman for Santa Clara, Calif.-based 3Com, referred all questions on the lawsuit to Palm. She said Palm agreed to be responsible for the Xerox lawsuit when it was spun off from Palm.
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