Xerox of Stamford, Connecticut alleges that its scientists
invented the “Unistroke” software that recognises one-stroke
motions as characters, the basis of Palm handwriting recognition
system. Xerox brought the action against Palm’s then-parent company
3Com in 1997, shortly after Xerox registered the patent in the
US.
Last June, a New York federal court judge threw out the case
against 3Com saying there was “no genuine issue as to any material
fact.” Friday’s ruling, passed unanimously by three judges, said
that Xerox has a reasonable chance of prevailing in its claims.
According to Wired, Xerox is now considering whether to push for
settlement or trial. It is possible that the end result could be
the need for Palm and Palm licensees such as Handspring to pay
royalties to Xerox on every sale of a Graffiti-based PDA.
Meanwhile, Xerox also announced on Friday that it has dismissed
KPMG as its auditor following a financial scandal over Xerox’s
Mexican operations that led to the dismissal of Xerox managers and
an enquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In May, KPMG
was accused of misapplying certain accounting rules. The company
has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers in place of KPMG.
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