A New York State judge on Friday sided with handheld computer maker palmOne Inc. in its lengthy patent infringement battle with Xerox Corp., ruling that Xerox's handwriting recognition software patent is invalid. Xerox, the office document management company know best for its copiers and printers, had previously won several rulings related to the case, and vowed to appeal it further.
The decision is the latest in a lengthy tussle between the former Palm Inc., which has since split into palmOne and PalmSource Inc., and Xerox, over "Grafitti" -- which Xerox called "Unistrokes", software that lets users enter data by writing alphabet-like symbols on their screen. In 1997, Xerox sued U.S. Robotics, later acquired by former Palm parent 3Com, over the technology, which Xerox said was invented at its Palo Alto Research Center. Last year, an appeals court backed Xerox's claim that Palm had infringed, but ordered a lower court to decide if the patent itself was valid, giving Palm a chance to argue its position again.
News source: Reuters
