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E-Pass Can Resue Patent Case Against Palm

Posted by timothy on from the springtime-for-hitler-as-a-patent-case dept.

kisrael writes "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that a patent held by E-Pass may have been infringed by Palm and other PDA makers even though their devices are larger than 'credit-card sized.' The 1994 patent describes a 'multifunction, credit card-sized computer that allows users to securely store a multitude of account numbers, PIN codes, access information and other data from multiple credit cards, check cards, identification cards and similar personal documents.'"

4 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Umm...hello? by Surak · · Score: 4, Informative

    Can you say prior art? The HP 95LX ran MS-DOS in 1991, even though it's not credit card sized, according to this judge it would be infringing right?

    --
    My journal has hot /. gossip.
  2. Infringement? by Jasin+Natael · · Score: 4, Informative

    Please. The PalmOS is Totally not secure. Just hook it up to a Hotsync port and run debug. :-P

    --Jasin Natael

    --
    True science means that when you re-evaluate the evidence, you re-evaluate your faith.
  3. Don't read too much into this by Glassbear · · Score: 5, Informative

    Unfortunately, the court only posts its decisions in MS Word format, but if you want to read it, here's the link: E-Pass Technologies v. 3Com, Inc.

    Don't read too much into this decision. The court hasn't found that there was infringement, only that the lower court nees to take a closer look at the issue. (In legal terms, the court of appeals overturned a grant of summary judgment by the lower court, meaning that the lower court has to hear additional evidence and/or reconsider its application of law before it can render a final judgment.) This is an interim opinion, but the case is not over yet.

    --
    [insert randomly selected declaration of absolutist meta-moderation philosophy here]
  4. real credit card sized stuff ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    like the Xircom rex family, but unfortunately they ar not available anymore afaik. www.rex6000.com : Says something about (maybe) the first credit card sized pda, he bought it 7 years ago, the page was last updated October 2001. I also remember that i had a Casio watch with a phonebook, and it was smaller then a credit card :-) i guess it was 1986 ... Secure storage? well, is a PIN code enough for this? I guess not ...