Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

A US federal court last week upheld a decision against NCR which found that handheld computers from Palm and Handspring did not infringe patents held by NCR, a company best known for making bank ATMs.

In the lawsuit, NCR claimed that it had 20 years ago designed "a revolutionary new device and system for handling and transmitting data" small enough to fit in the user's hand. NCR, formerly known as National Cash Register, alleged that its design incorporated many of the same tools found in the popular Palm and Handspring PDAs.

The lawsuit also claimed that Palm and Handspring knew of the NCR patent but decided not to seek licences. NRC notified Handspring of its claim of infringement in March 2000, but never contacted Palm on the matter to seek resolution before filing suit in the US District Court in Delaware.

The case was dismissed in July last year. At the time, the federal Judge said that NCR's patents did not apply to either Palm's or Handspring's products or technology.

On Thursday, Judge Kent Jordan upheld that ruling, and dismissed the case against Palm and Handspring. Brad Hulbert, one of the lawyers acting for Palm told Reuters that the verdict "affirms Palm's policy of litigating rather than paying a patent royalty when the patent is not infringed".

Palm is negotiating to purchase Handspring, and the deal is expected to complete this autumn.

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