Patenting the alphabet:



SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Reuters) - Palm Inc. (news/quote) (PALM.O), the No. 1

handheld computer maker, on Friday said it would appeal a court ruling in

favor of Xerox Corp. (news/quote) (XRX.N) in a case over a patent for

handwriting recognition software.

``We assert that the Graffiti handwriting technology does not infringe the

Xerox patent and that Palm has strong arguments to support its defense,''

Eric Benhamou, Palm's chairman and chief executive said in a statement.

Xerox said on Thursday that it had won a patent infringement suit against

3Com Corp. (news/quote) (COMS.O) and Palm over the Graffiti product.

Xerox had sued U.S. Robotics, which was later acquired by 3Com, in April

1997, claiming that the handwriting recognition technology marketed as

Graffiti and used on Palm handheld devices infringed a patent Xerox

received in 1997.

Xerox said the technology was invented at its Palo Alto Research Center,

known as PARC.

``Palm will defend itself vigorously and does not intend for this

litigation to affect its business strategy or business model nor that of

its licensees,'' the Palm statement said.