Palm and 3Com are still appealing a ruling of December which
found that the Graffiti handwriting recognition system used in
Palm, Handspring and other Palm-licensed PDAs infringed a patent
owned by Xerox for a system called “Unistrokes”. The lawsuit was
first filed by Xerox in 1997.
Eric Benhamou, CEO of Palm, said yesterday of his company’s
appeal:
“For thousands of years, people have been
creating writing symbols. Xerox doesn't own the alphabet. Numerous
handwriting-recognition technologies have long been available, some
costing pennies per unit. Graffiti is only a tiny fraction of the
software experience that drives the existing 21 million Palm
Powered products.”
On Friday, Judge Michael Telesca of the US District Court in
Rochester, New York, ruled that if sales of Palm devices continued,
Xerox would not be irreparably harmed. However, he ordered Palm to
pay the $50 million bond so that Xerox would be “able to collect at
least some, if not all, of the damages it will suffer as a result
of 3Com’s infringement during the appeal process.”
The $50 million bond does not cover damages for the infringing
period that pre-dates the appeal. If the Court of Appeals rejects
Palm and 3Com's appeal, the next step is for the trial court to
determine the amount of damages for past infringement of the
patent. If the infringement is determined to have been wilful, the
court can triple the amount of damages due to Xerox. Both Palm and
3Com are jointly and separately liable.
