Judge Rules Palm Didn’t Infringe E-Pass Patent

Palm Inc., the biggest maker of hand-held computers, said a federal judge ruled that its Palm Pilot didn’t infringe a patent owned by E-Pass Technologies Inc.

E-Pass sued in February 2000, claiming Palm used information outlined in a 1994 patent for a credit card-sized computer to develop and market the Palm Pilot.

Palm has survived other allegations that its best-selling product infringes other companies’ patents. Last month, a federal judge in Delaware also ruled that Palm didn’t infringe two of NCR Corp.’s patents for a hand-held computer system. E-Pass makes smart cards, which are plastic cards with an embedded computer chip that stores personal data.

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