Lawsuit alleges Palm computers can damage PCs

From...

By Douglas F. Gray

(IDG) -- A California law firm has filed suit against Palm and its former parent company 3Com, claiming that a feature used to synchronize data between Palm's handheld computers and a PC can cause damage to PCs.

The suit, filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court by Pinnacle Law Group, alleges that Palm and 3Com, both in Santa Clara, Calif., failed to warn users that the so-called HotSync feature in Palm computers could damage certain models of PCs, resulting in users needing to buy a new motherboard for their computer.

Palm declined to comment, saying it had not yet seen the lawsuit.

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The suit was filed on behalf of two California Palm owners, and seeks class-action status for other users in the United States who bought certain models of the Palm V and Palm Vx and who may have been affected by the problem. The allegedly defective Palms were sold since 1999, and the law firm estimates that "hundreds of thousands" of users were affected.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and an injunction requiring Santa Clara, Calif.-based Palm to warn users that its PDAs can harm their PCs.

Specifically, the suit charges that the HotSync feature can disable the serial port on certain brands of PCs, resulting in the user needing to buy a new motherboard. The suit doesn't specify which brands of PCs allegedly are affected, and the attorneys filing the suit didn't immediately return calls.