Palm Shrs Slide As Fears Of Apple Patent Suit Grow

Palm (PALM) shares are under pressure today as fears grow that the company ’s new Palm Web OS and its Palm Pre handset could trigger patent infringement litigation from Apple (AAPL) . Concerns about the possibility were triggered last week when Apple COO Tim Cook said on the company’s post-earnings conference call last week that the company “will not stand for having our IP ripped off.” (Though Cook did not talk about Palm specifically.) The situation has now heated up a bit, with word that Apple has received a new patent that could directly affect Palm’s design. AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski notes that the patent, awarded January 20 for “Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics,” includes features that sound a lot like those included in the Palm Pre. Meanwhile, the market seems to be largely ignoring the latest hoo-hah over the health of CEO Steve Jobs ; gossip blog  ... (link)