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Palm/3Com Graffiti A Patent Infringement on Xerox

Posted by Hemos on from the no-more-scribbling dept.

Olmy's Jart writes "According to this article on money.cnn.com, a judge has ruled that graffiti, the one stroke shorthand used on Palm Pilots, infringes a Xerox patent for "unistrokes". Really light on details and no links to betters sites, unfortunately." MSNBC also has the story.

4 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. quick question by windchill2001 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How does this affect handspring? Is Xerox's claim towards the implementation in the OS or the general input method?

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    -Windchill2001 The One, The Only, The Cold...
  2. hmmm... by 4n0nym0u53+C0w4rd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Man, Palm is really having a hard time these days. Could this, coupled with their recent downturn help microsoft innovate them out of business a la netscape?

    Sure, Palm was the original, and the only one (along with OS licencees) that offers PDAs that aren't overloaded with pricey color screens, 64mb of memory, and desktop applications. (Well they offer those too, but they still have some good straightforward PDAs). But, with the market crowding, and lots of new Wince apps being written, are we seeing the beginning of the end?

    I'd hate to have to buy an overloaded PDA because MS becomes the only game in town...

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    Buy Hex-Rated Stuff, fight the DMCA!

  3. Riddle me this. by Malcontent · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Xerox sued palm and won. Xerox did not sue MS. Why is this legal? At this point MS is most likely infringing on a Xerox Patent but Palm is the only organization being punished for it.

    Man out justice system is fucked up. If I ran the world Xerox would have to sue everybody who infringed or nobody. It's unfair to let some people off the hook.

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    War is necrophilia.

    1. Re:Riddle me this. by DivideByZero · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Simple - Microsoft is paying Licencing fees to Xerox on their new Block Recognizer. Which, when I first heard it, sent warning bells off in my mind. Since when does Microsoft licence ANYTHING?

      Haven't they made their entire empire out of copying the work of others, then using their lawyers to beat the lawsuits off?

      But in light of this, it makes /perfect/ sense.

      Xerox beats the living daylights out of Palm, and points at Microsoft's licence as proof they own the technology.

      Microsoft pays next to nothing for the graffiti patents, and has their butts covered when Palm tries to sue them for using it.

      Palm can't sue M$, and they probably can't countersue Xerox. If Xerox manages to kill Palm completely, then M$ just drops Character Recognizer support, and leaves Xerox hanging.

      It's brilliant from a stratigic viewpoint. Kind of like giving a little bit of money to a bunch of ignorant Arab terrorists to keep the Russians from taking over a certain country.