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    HS & Palm license RIM Keyboard PatentsPosted By: Ryan on Sunday, November 10, 2002 10:12:21 AM
Research In Motion (RIM) and Palm, Inc's Solutions Group along with Handspring have announced that they have signed an agreement in principle setting out the fundamental terms under which RIM will license certain RIM keyboard patents to them. Specific terms of the royalty-bearing licenses were not disclosed. If you want a good analysis of the situation, check out the Register's coverage. "RIM continues to license its patents and technologies to reputable companies to expand the market opportunities for its industry-leading research and development," said Jim Balsillie, Chairman and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. "This agreement with Palm is a result of RIM's ability to innovate and deliver proven and popular mobile solutions such as BlackBerry™." "The coupling of RIM's keyboard technology in our upcoming Tungsten W wireless handheld with the wealth of software applications available for Palm handhelds helps us deliver versatile and innovative wireless products to mobile professionals and enterprises," said Todd Bradley, President and CEO, Solutions Group at Palm, Inc. "With this agreement, we’re both working to expand the wireless marketplace and provide people with critical information on the go." "Wireless device users are finding that integrated QWERTY keyboards are a fast, easy and familiar method of data input," said Donna Dubinsky, founder and CEO of Handspring. "We are pleased to come to this agreement with RIM so that we can focus our resources on product innovation and expanding the market for our Treo communicators."
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Article Comments
15 total comments The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PIC is not responsible for them in any way. login or register for free in order to post comments.  Palm Tungsten TNikMan @ 11/10/2002 12:23:48 PM #
Can anyone tell me. I am buying tommorow a Palm TT. Is sound ok? Is it worth it. Will I be really able to listen MP3 and so on. Thank you!  RE: Palm Tungsten T
As of now, there is no bundled MP3 player with the T|T. The T|T has MP3 playing capability and it has the headphone jack, but it just doesn't have the software yet. It has been stated before that one will be available for download later on, but I haven't heard any confirmation. You could always play MP3's using Kinoma. --- This signature is witty. You like it. RE: Palm Tungsten T
The T|T is AMAZINGLY small. Its sick. Its like the equivalent of my M500, just feature packed. The only other thing you should consider with the T|T is the Macromedia Flash capabilities that the NX** series have. Thats minor, but its still making me iffy on buying the T|T or the NX** series. "Now thats just PRIME!" RE: Palm Tungsten T
MP3 playing capability is apparently coming in the form of a player from Real(makers of the very popular RealPlayer for desktop) and is supposed to be available within a few weeks. I find it very interesting that Palm OS provides the platform that enables Real to carey on their on-going battle against M$ - this time against Windows Media player for PocketPC. 
OK, I guess
This is a good thing for wireless devices like future Treos and Tungsten W's, but what about future Palm's that aren't wireless? I really don't want to have a tiny keyboard taking the place of Graffiti on my Palm. Let's just hope Palm and Sony don't abandon Graffiti anytime soon like HandSpring has done. --- This signature is witty. You like it. RE: OK, I guess
Well, they could always have Virtual graffiti :) This way, the keyboard exists, and graffiti is left in tact. However, I think only Sony would only be able to use this because of their "special" API.
RE: OK, I guess
The Tungsten W will come with Jot which will allow for handwriting recognition on that unit.
Why Doesn't RIM become a PalmSource Licensee?gfunkmagic @ 11/10/2002 7:40:12 PM #
I think it would make sense for RIM to become a licensee of POS. They already have the market share in the enterprise market, and they could only enhance their device capabilites by bundling POS apps with them? They certainly cannot compete in the PIM and applicaitons development using theier proprietary OS, so why shouldn't they just adopt teh POS in order to maintain thier lead. Furthermore, why should RIM license thier QERTY keyboard if it only means that it will allow competting devices into the market place that have similar features to its own devices? Perhaps this may be indication of RIM becoming a POS licensee afterall? RE: Why Doesn't RIM become a PalmSource Licensee?Token User @ 11/10/2002 10:33:47 PM #
FWIW - RIM cross licenced a Palm technology long ago. Palm's "Palm Query Application" now known as "Web Clipping Application" technology runs on RIM devices with no translation ... so if you have a Palm PQA file, it will run unaltered on the RIM - it might not look pretty (spacing is an issue), but it works pretty well.
OK, so its not exactly a compiled app, but the ties are there.
evil but understandable
Palm and Handspring really aren't in a position to fight this right now. Palm already got burned over the handwriting patent. Paying the protection money was really the only choice they had. But make no mistake about it: this is evil. Small, thumb operated keyboards have been around for a while. The fact that RIM could prevail with this patent claim means that our choices as consumer will be limited because new devices will have a harder time making it in the market. RE: evil but understandableFly-By-Night @ 11/11/2002 5:53:38 AM #
This seems utterly ridiculous to me. What is so special or revolutionary about Lawsuits in Motion's keyboard that they were granted patents over it? It's small and has oval keys. Wow. The original Psion had small oval keys (admittedly in an ABC format rather than QWERTY; but QWERTY is hardly revolutionary now is it). I think Palm should counter sue RIM for having an 'M' in their name, and thus infringing trademark. If this is the kind of tactics RIM have to fall back on, then they can't have much confidence in their own technology. FBN RE: evil but understandable
Uh, where is it that Palm got burned on the handwriting recognition. There has been no ruling to that affect. I recall the last ruling put it that Xerox did not have a case. RE: evil but understandable
RIM's keyboard patent does cover several unique design items. For example, the slant of the keys on each side of the keyboard to better facilitate thumb typing was part of their patent claims, so while the idea of an integrated keyboard may not be a strong claim, elements of the design can be. -- Ben Combee, CodeWarrior for Palm OS technical lead Programming help at www.palmoswerks.com
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