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Palm responds to Apple's veiled threat of litigation
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Palm fired back at Apple, making it clear that it would defend itself against any litigation that may arise over intellectual property rights with the iPhone maker.
During Apple's fiscal first quarter earnings conference call, acting CEO Tim Cook made it clear to rival smartphone makers that it would use "whatever weapons" at its disposal to defend its intellectual property. "I'm just making a general statement that we think competition is good; it makes us all better. And we're ready to suit up and go against anyone," he said. "However, we will not stand for having our [intellectual property] ripped off and we'll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal. I don't know that I can be more clear than that."
However, Palm was undaunted in the face of Cook's words, which many took as a thinly veiled warning at Palm, whose Pre smartphone shares many of the same features as Apple's iPhone 3G, including multi-touch technology.
"Palm has a long history of innovation that is reflected in our products and robust patent portfolio, and we have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space," Palm spokeswoman Lynn Fox said. "If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves."
Apple has in the past filed for patents on multi-touch technology, and, if granted, would force other handset makers to license the technology from Apple.
For more:
- see this Boy Genius Report post
- see this post
- see this article
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Comments
Posted by Julius | January 26, 2009 - 9:17pm
Palm is a has been and they steel talent and features, since they could not cut the mustard for many years now. I just hope, that Apple will find a valid and airtight reason to sue them for stealing intellectual property and put them out of their misery for good.
I owned more than half a dozen Palm devices, until the software became ancient and useless for lack of development. They don't deserve to stay in business, unless they can innovate on their own!
Posted by Anonymous | January 27, 2009 - 11:36am
The Pre is the first phone to make the iPhone look old and seem dated!
Posted by Anonymous | January 29, 2009 - 1:46pm
Apple bought the multi touch technology from someone else - if you want to talk about innovation - don't put multi touch and apple in the same sentence, unless you plan to qualify that the technology did NOT come from apple.
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