This past week Apple made some comments which did not directly call out Palm but were clearly directed towards them.  The best way to quickly sum it up is that Apple stated they would defend their intellectual property very aggressively.

We like competition, as long as they don’t rip off our IP, and if they do, we’re going to go after anybody that does….We will not stand for having our IP ripped off and we’ll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal [to make sure that doesn't happen]. I don’t know that I can be more clear than that.”— Apple COO Tim Cook on the company’s iPhone intellectual property

The iPhone has been the dominant leader in the smartphone market for the last 1 1/2 years which prior to that time had no experience in the phone market at all. Palm however has been selling smartphones for more than 5 years which dwarfs that of Apple’s experience.  This makes Apple the newcomer to the smartphone market with less than a third of the experience of Palm.  With as much experience as Palm has it is highly doubtful that they would be so foolish as to infringe on any IP.

All Things Digital was able to speak with Palm spokesperson Lynn Fox this week about the comments by Tim Cook from Apple.

“Palm has a long history of innovation that is reflected in our products and robust patent portfolio (31 pages of patents in Google Patent Search), and we have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space,” she told Digital Daily. “If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves.” – Lynn Fox of Palm

It’s never fun to have your products market share threatened but it does benefit consumers in the long run.  Maybe the Palm Pre will get Apple back in to their design labs working on a better iPhone.  Can anyone guess when it will be announced?

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