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Graffiti infringes on Xerox
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December 20, 2001: 4:13 p.m. ET
Judge rules Palm's handwriting recognition technology violates patent.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A federal judge ruled Thursday that Palm Inc's handwriting recognition technology for its handheld computers infringes on a Xerox Corp. patent.
Xerox said U.S. District Court Judge Michael Telesca ruled Palm's (PALM: Research, Estimates) Graffiti system infringes on Xerox's patent for Unistrokes. The court will now move to the damages phase of the trial.
If the infringement was willful, the court can triple the amount of damages, Xerox (XRX: Research, Estimates) said. Xerox could also receive lucrative licensing fees from Palm.
Palm said it would appeal the verdict.
Xerox also named 3Com Corp. in the suit, but a spokesman for 3Com told CNN/Money the decision does not affect his company.
"This is really a Palm issue," 3Com spokesman Brian Johnson said. "In the process of spinning off Palm we sorted out liability issues."
In April 1997 Xerox sued U.S. Robotics, later acquired by 3Com, for infringing on the Unistrokes patent with the Graffiti technology later to be used in Palm operating systems. 3Com spun Palm off in March 1999.
Unistrokes was developed at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, known as PARC.
Xerox spokeswoman Christa Carone said the company hasn't quantified damages and is leaving the decision up to a trial court in the next phase.
Carone said it may make a recommendation on damages, but declined to specify a number. 
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