Xerox To Appeal PalmOne Ruling

A federal court ruling that dismissed a seven-year-old patent infringement lawsuit against PalmOne's Graffiti handwriting recognition system will be appealed by Stamford, Connecticut-based Xerox Corporation. "We intend to appeal," Xerox spokesperson Christa Carone told TechNewsWorld. "We've won on appeal twice already, and we believe we will have a favorable outcome in this appeal as well." In handing down his ruling, Judge Michael A. Telesca found that the Xerox patent, U.S. No. 5,596,656, which covers unistroke symbols, was invalid because "prior art references anticipate and render obvious the claim."

Prior Art

In support of his finding that Xerox never should have been granted a patent on its unistroke system, Telesca cited a 1983 journal article by Bell Labs researcher D.J. Burr, "Designing a Handwriting Reader," and a 1984 patent granted by the Japanese Patent Office to Tadahiro Nagayama, "Control Method Using Real-Time Recognition of Handwritten Character Patterns." "We're disappointed by the ruling, but it is important to note that this is just another round in the process," Xerox spokesperson Bill McKee told TechNewsWorld via e-mail. "The U.S. Patent Office has twice ruled on the validity of Xerox's Unistrokes patent, each time confirming the validity of Xerox's patent."

News source: TechNewsWorld