The battle of words between Apple and Palm stepped up a gear yesterday after it emerged that the former had been granted a patent for using multi-touch technology in mobile devices.The spat became public when Apple COO and current standee chief executive Tim Cook warned the firm's competitors in its financial call that it would "not stand for having [Apple's] IP ripped off," adding that the firm would "use any weapons [it] has available."
The patent is question is US7479949, which grants Apple IP rights over devices that work by "detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device, and processing the command."
It had been thought that Cook had been referring specifically to Palm's Pre device, which was announced at this year's CES and features heavy implementation of multi-touch gestures. It is unclear what affect the granting of the patent will have upon Palm's development of the device – if any – but shares in the company fell ten per cent on the news.
Only yesterday, Palm released a statement saying that: "If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves," as reported by PC Retail.
Source: Fortune
Advertisement
Related Stories
- Google's Motorola buy gets the green light Feb 14th 2012 at 7:49AM
- Apple tries to ban the Samsung Galaxy Nexus Feb 13th 2012 at 5:26AM
- iPad 3 coming in March, report Feb 10th 2012 at 7:48AM
- Apple sued for use of the word iPad Feb 8th 2012 at 11:14AM
- Consumer caution returns as the Christmas holiday ends Feb 7th 2012 at 1:55PM
- Apple ordered to cease iPhone and iPad sales in Germany Feb 3rd 2012 at 3:05PM
- Apple OS X updates released Feb 2nd 2012 at 5:44AM
- Apple event changes name to Appule Feb 1st 2012 at 11:14AM
- Apple hires former CEO of Dixons Feb 1st 2012 at 10:31AM
Follow Follow this article if you would like to receive notifications of updates.
Add a new comment
You need to be logged in to post comments. If you do not have an account then please register.
Comments
0 comments
There are no comments yet, be the first to add one!