Palm says lawsuit based on 'invalid' patents

Palm, Inc. says a lawsuit filed against it is based on patents of "doubtful validity" that have been rejected by U.S. officials.

In a statement issued late Monday, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based maker of personal communications and data devices said it will "defend itself vigorously against the attempted misuse of the patent and judicial systems".

Palm also said they would fight the bid to "extract monetary value for rights to patents that may ultimately have no value at all."

Earlier on Monday, NTP Inc. filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court that alleged Palm had infringed on seven patents held by the Richmond, Va. company.

The action seeks a court order barring Palm from "continuing to infringe on NTP's patents" and seeks monetary damages for the alleged past infringements.

"All seven of the patents asserted are being re-examined by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office [PTO] and have been rejected by the re-examiners as invalid," Palm's statement said.

No contact with NTP in some time: Palm

Palm makes a range of handheld computers and cellphones with wireless e-mail capability, including its line of popular Treo devices.

The device maker said NTP's patents are for "a pager-based e-mail service that has nothing in common with the mobile-computing devices invented by Palm."

The company noted that it had previously been in touch with NTP about patent licenses but had not heard from the company in a long time.

"Palm is disappointed that, after many months of silence and repeated rejections of NTP's claims by the PTO, NTP has chosen to sue on patents of doubtful validity," Palm's statement said.

NTP did not return a voicemail message CBC News Online left for a company representative.

NTP previously sued BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. of Waterloo, Ont., over alleged patent infringement.

In March, RIM agreed to pay NTP $612.5 million US to settle the patent company's claims against it, but did not concede any wrongdoing.