PalmOne Buys Back Palm Name

palmOne announced an agreement with PalmSource, Inc. for palmOne to acquire full rights to the brand name Palm.

The brand had been co-owned by the two companies since the October 2003 spin-off of PalmSource from Palm, Inc.

palmOne will pay PalmSource $30 million for PalmSource’s 55 percent share of the Palm Trademark Holding Company. Payment will be made ininstallments over 3.5 years. palmOne will change its company name to Palm, Inc. later this year. As part of the agreement, palmOne has granted PalmSource certain rights to Palm trademarks forPalmSource and its licensees for a four-year transition period.

“The letters P-A-L-M reflect a prized brand with significant customer awareness and earned loyalty,” said Ed Colligan, palmOne president and chief executive officer. “Innovation, power, ease of use,and elegance all are attributes of the brand, and we intend to invest to turn what is a strong name today into a household word synonymous with leadership in mobile computing.”

A new logo and design treatment will be unveiled later this summer. Mobile-computing products to be launched in the fall are expected to feature the name Palm instead of palmOne.