A lawsuit brought by Xerox against 3Com, alleging patent
infringement for the handwriting recognition system used in the
Palm personal digital assistant (PDA) has been dismissed by a New
York federal court judge.
Xerox alleged that its scientists invented the “Unistroke”
software that recognises one-stroke motions as characters, the
basis of 3Com’s Palm handwriting recognition system. Xerox brought
the action against Palm in 1997, shortly after it registered the
patent in the US.
Judge Michael Telesca threw out the case saying there was “no
genuine issue as to any material fact.”
A Xerox spokeswoman said the company would be reviewing
Telesca’s decision before deciding whether or not to lodge an
appeal against it. A successful appeal and court order in Xerox’s
favour could lead to 3Com and any other companies using the
technology being required to pay a licence fee to Xerox for each
PDA sold.
Xerox is seen by some commentators as only recently asserting
its rights, having previously let go of inventions as ubiquitous as
the mouse and the laser printer.
