Palm slaps back at Xerox

Palm is to appeal against a ruling yesterday that it lost in its long-running patent battle against printer firm Xerox.

The battle is over its handwriting recognition technology - Graffiti - which is central to Palm's success. Xerox claims the technology infringes its patented Unistrokes technology.

In a statement today, Palm CEO and chairman Eric Benhamou said Graffiti did not impinge upon the Xerox patent.

He said: "Palm will defend itself vigorously and does not intend for this litigation to affect its business strategy or business model, nor that of its licencees."

However, if Palm is unsuccessful in its appeal against the New York District Court decision it remains unclear how much damages Xerox will request, or even whether it will agree to license the technology to Palm.

A spokesman for Xerox could not be reached by time of publication.