palmOne, Inc. is acquiring the full rights to the brand name Palm. The name has been co-owned by palmOne and PalmSource since PalmSource was spun off from Palm, Inc. in October 2003.
palmOne will pay PalmSource $30 million for PalmSource’s 55% share of the Palm Trademark Holding Company. Payment will be made in installments over 3 and a half 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 for PalmSource 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.
PalmSource’s President and Chief Executive Officer, David Nagel stepped down from the company. He didn’t give a reason for doing so. Nagel will remain as an advisor through the middle of July as Senior Vice President for worldwide licensing Patrick McVeigh picks up the CEO role temporarily.
McVeigh joined the company in February and was previously CEO of Aliph Corp., which develops audio and speech technologies for mobile communications devices.
The company is looking for a replacement to fill the position permanently. Mr. Nagel, who is 60 years old, was named CEO of the company in December of 2001.
Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
