Palm Shares Slip Amid Apple Patent Warnings
10:22 am, January 27th, 2009, Ed Sutherland
Have Apple lawyers targeted Palm as a potential target for patent-infringment lawsuits? Concerns sent shares of the Palm Pre handset slipping Tuesday.
Palm shares were down $0.40 as of 1:22 p.m. Eastern. Apple’s stock was up $0.86.
Worries were renewed earlier today on word Apple had been granted a patent covering a “touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD.
The patent “includes features that sound a lot like those included in the Palm Pre,” noted Barron’s.
“I asked Palm point blank whether they were prepared to defend using the same gestures as the iPhone; Palm assured me that their IP position is secure,” Avi Greengart, handset analyst for Current Analysis, told Cult of Mac.
Interim Apple CEO Tim Cook last week hinted the company would pursue litigation, telling analysts the Cupertino, Calif.-based firm “will not stand for having our IP ripped-off.”
Responding to Apple’s saber-rattling, Palm told reporters it was “confident” it could withstand a patent challenge, noting it owned several “fundamental” handset technologies.
Posted by Ed Sutherland in News | Comment on this article
Steve has livercancer.
CaryMG, on January 27th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Cary, unless you are willing to give your full name, exact area of practice and where that backs up that you have knowledge of Steve Jobs medical state because you treat him and you feel it more important to tell his business to the world than to keep your license to practice, can it.
as for this patent business. Apple can’t patent an idea, only how they make it work. So long as Palm didn’t steal Apple’s way of doing multitouch etc they are fine. You can bet they will have their lawyers look over the details very closely before they put the Palm on sale.
And if they can clear their methods they will push that they have flash,copy/paste etc which the iphone doesn’t. of course some of those items may be in a near future software upgrade and I wouldn’t be shocked if Apple released said software upgrade the week before the Pre goes on sale.
Lucas, on January 27th, 2009 at 12:36 pm