Palm and Xerox have been locked in a battle for nine years over the Graffiti software (known as Unistrokes from Xerox ) which allows users to input data by writing alphabet like characters onto their Palm screen.
Xerox's input technology, Unistrokes, was patented in 1997. The patent in question covers Unistroke touch screen input symbols. The lawsuit was against Palm as well as its former parent company, 3Com.
Xerox originally filed for its patent in October of 1993. The first handhelds running the Palm OS, the Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000, were released in April of 1996 by U.S. Robotics. These included Graffiti.
The settlement was reached when Palm agreed to pay $22.5 million to Xerox during its fourth fiscal quarter. Xerox said proceeds from the agreement will be offset in its second quarter results by costs related to the expected settlement of other legal matters.
News source: Reuters
