Industry watch Toolkit

Palm and Handspring cleared by court

Margaret Kane CNET News

Published: 12 Jul 2002 13:43 BST

A court has rejected a claim from ATM giant NCR that Palm and Handspring violated its patents in their handheld devices.

NCR, a maker of automated teller machines and other finance-related hardware and software, filed the lawsuit in March 2001, claiming its patents relate to performing financial transactions on communications networks via handheld devices. NCR's lawsuit contended that Palm and Handspring knew about the patents but chose not to seek licenses from NCR.

A US District Court judge in Delaware granted Palm and Handspring a summary judgment Thursday, saying neither company violated the patents, according to the two companies.

"Palm respects valid patents and has taken licences where appropriate," Palm chief executive Eric Benhamou said in a statement. "We refuse to succumb to intimidation by companies that use charges of patent infringement to bully others."

NCR could not immediately be reached for comment.

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