Appeals Court Asks for Re-evaluation of Xerox Patent

The patent infringement lawsuit between Palm and Xerox entered into a new phase yesterday as the United States Court of Appeals issued a ruling that has good news and bad news for both companies.

In April 1997, Xerox sued Palm, claiming that Graffiti infringed on its patented Unistrokes technology. In December 2001, a federal judge ruled in Xerox's favor. Palm appealed the decision shortly thereafter.

Yesterday, United States Court of Appeals affirmed the decision that Palm infringed on the Xerox patent. But the Court of Appeals also remanded the case back to the District Court to examine the validity of the patent in question.

The Appeals Court judge asked the lower court to conduct a complete validity analysis of Xerox's patent in question. In doing so, it noted that the infringement was based on a broad construction of the patent, which "has implications for the issue of validity." The Court of Appeals stated in its opinion that Palm "has made strong arguments that the asserted claims, as construed, are invalid."

At the very least, this process will delay by months, if not years, the final resolution of this case.

Graffiti 2

Though they are still continuing the court fight with Xerox, Palm and its subsidiary PalmSource have decided to not wait for the results. In January, they announced that future versions of Palm OS will not contain Graffiti. Rather, they will include a modified version of Communication Intelligence Corporation's Jot handwriting recognition software, something it's calling Graffiti 2 powered by Jot.

It should be pointed out, however, that the lawsuit isn't the only reason for this change. Graffiti 2 more closely follows the standard ways of drawing letters and numbers than Graffiti does. The people involved with the development of Graffiti 2 hope this will make it easier for people to learn to use their handhelds.

Related Links

• Inside Graffiti 2