Overview
 

ACCESS has entered into a non-exclusive agreement with Palm, Inc., to license the Palm OS® Garnet® source code to Palm, Inc. ACCESS continues to license and support Palm OS. ACCESS and Palm have also agreed to an expansion of the two companies existing patent license.

Under terms of the agreement, ACCESS has granted Palm specific rights to modify the code base of Palm OS Garnet for use in its devices such as the Palm Treo smartphone family and the company's other handheld computers. The agreement also grants Palm the right to use Palm OS Garnet in whole or in part in any product from Palm and together with any other system technologies.

• ACCESS continues to license and support Palm OS.
• ACCESS has licensed the source code for Palm OS Garnet to Palm, Inc. This is a non-exclusive license.
• Both ACCESS and Palm are committed to ensuring forward compatibility of future applications.
• Agreement benefits licensees and developers.
• ACCESS continues moving forward with the development of its next-generation operating system—code-name the ACCESS Linux® Platform. The ACCESS Linux Platform includes Palm OS compatibility with its GHost (Garnet Host) layer. ACCESS has publicly demonstrated that most properly written 68K Palm OS applications will run on ACCESS Linux® Platform-based devices with little or no modification.

Q. What does this announcement mean?

A. ACCESS has licensed the source code for Palm OS Garnet to Palm, Inc.

Under terms of the agreement, ACCESS has granted Palm specific rights to modify the code base of Palm OS Garnet for use in its devices such as the Palm Treo smartphone family and the company's other handheld computers. Palm will retain the ownership rights for any modifications it makes to the Palm OS Garnet source code. The agreement also grants Palm the right to use Palm OS Garnet in whole or in part in any product from Palm and together with any other system technologies.

ACCESS and Palm have also agreed to an expansion of the two companies' existing patent license.

Q. How does this agreement affect the previous licensing agreement PalmSource (now known as ACCESS) and Palm announced in May 2005?

A. This new, non-exclusive license replaces the previous licensing agreement between the two companies. The new license is a perpetual license.

Q. Does Palm, Inc., now own Palm OS Garnet?

A. No, this is a non-exclusive licensing agreement. ACCESS continues to be the owner of Palm OS Garnet. ACCESS will continue license and support Palm OS.

Q. How long are the terms of the agreement?

A. This non-exclusive licensing agreement is for a perpetual license.

Q. How much did Palm pay ACCESS for the license?

A. The agreement is for a total of $44 million USD.

Q. Will ACCESS continue to support Palm OS Garnet?

A. Yes.

Q. Will ACCESS continue to support its current Palm OS licensees?

A. Yes. In fact, we recently announced a new licensee—Janam Technologies.

Q. Will ACCESS continue to offer Palm OS to new customers?

A. Yes.

Q. Will the version of Palm OS Garnet available from ACCESS be compatible with the version Palm, Inc., will be using?

A. Yes. To ensure forward-compatibility of 68K-based Palm OS Garnet applications, ACCESS and Palm will continue to use a test/compatibility harness. This test/compatibility harness is designed to ensure that properly written applications will run on future Palm OS Garnet-based devices from any Palm OS Garnet licensee without having to be re-written. However, as is the case today, any applications using specific software extensions developed by Palm will not run on devices offered by other vendors.

ACCESS has always given its licensees the ability to extend the capability of Palm OS to meet their specific target market requirements. Applications taking specific advantage of these extensions are by definition only compatible with that particular licensee's devices.

Q. Will Palm, Inc., license its version of Palm OS Garnet to other companies?

A. No, this is a non-exclusive licensing agreement. ACCESS has licensed the source code for Palm OS Garnet to Palm, Inc. ACCESS continues as owner of Palm OS Garnet and therefore is the only company able to license the operating system.

Q. Will Palm, Inc., modify its version of Palm OS Garnet?

A. Under terms of the agreement Palm may modify Palm OS Garnet as part of its efforts to differentiate Palm products. ACCESS and Palm have agreed to continue to use a compatibility test harness that will ensure that a common set of API's are available on future versions of Palm OS Garnet from ACCESS as well as on Palm's modified version.

Q. Can Palm, Inc., use Palm OS Garnet with other system technologies?

A. Yes. Under terms of the agreement Palm may use Palm OS Garnet in whole or in part in any Palm product, and together with any other system technologies. However, as has been true in past, Palm will only be able to use the Palm OS trademark for products that meet the compatibility requirements, verified through the compatibility test harness used by ACCESS and Palm.

Q. What capabilities and rights does Palm get with this new agreement?

A.Palm will be able to use any portion of the Palm OS Garnet code in their products. Palm is required to indicate Palm OS Garnet compatibility following the branding guidelines agreed by the two companies. The agreement also grants Palm the right to integrate Palm OS Garnet on top of other operating systems.

Q. Will ACCESS modify its version of Palm OS Garnet?

A. We will continue to support our licensees and developers. We will provide professional services as needed. The functionality provided by the current version of Palm OS Garnet will be included in the ACCESS Linux Platform, our next generation operating system for smart mobile devices and phones. The ACCESS Linux Platform will include the Palm OS Garnet code in its entirety; thus providing a very high level of compatibility.

Q. Does this agreement include a license to future operating system products from ACCESS (formerly PalmSource) or updates to Palm OS Garnet?

A. No. This new license agreement is only for Palm OS Garnet as it exists today as previously delivered to Palm. For example, this new license agreement does not include a license to future ACCESS products such as the ACCESS Linux Platform, which would need to be licensed separately. The new agreement also does not include any updates or upgrades from ACCESS to the existing Palm OS Garnet code base.

Q. Are ACCESS and Palm Inc. still working together?

A. Yes. We have licensed the source code for Palm OS Garnet to Palm.

Q. Does Palm, Inc. plan to use the ACCESS Linux Platform?

A. We don't comment on any of our licensees' product plans or roadmaps.

Q. What will ACCESS name its version of Palm OS Garnet?

A. We will be re-naming all our products with Palm-based names. As you may remember, we sold our rights in the Palm Trademark Holding Company last May (2005). As part of that deal, we agreed to change our then name—PalmSource--as well as all our Palm-based product and program names.

Q. Can ACCESS still use the name Palm OS?

A. In May 2005, PalmSource, Inc., (since acquired by ACCESS CO., LTD., and renamed ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc.) sold its rights in the Palm Trademark Holding Company to Palm, Inc. As part of that agreement the company agreed to change its name and all Palm-based product names over the course of the next four years, and have retained exclusive rights to use certain Palm marks, including Palm OS and PalmSource until May 2009.

ACCESS announced in October 2006 that PalmSource had begun the process of changing its name to ACCESS. The Company has also begun changing the names of our products with Palm-based names, including Palm OS. We will provide an update on our new product names very soon.

Although we are transitioning away from the use of those marks, for the time being ACCESS continues to be the exclusive licensee of the mark Palm OS and our customers (including Palm) are permitted to use those marks only under a sublicense from ACCESS. In addition to the new licensing agreement, ACCESS has negotiated the perpetual right to identify any of our software products that pass the compatibility tests as “compatible with Palm OS” or “Palm OS compatible.”

Q. What will ACCESS name future versions of the operating system?

A. We are currently using the code name ACCESS Linux Platform for our next generation operating system. We will announce the official name of the ACCESS Linux Platform when we announce that it is available to our licensees and developers—expected sometime in the first half of 2007.

Q. Can Palm, Inc., use the name Palm OS?

A. Under terms of the agreement, we have given Palm the right to use either “Palm OS by ACCESS” or the product's new name (still to be announced) when referring to the operating system licensed with this new agreement.

Q. If Palm Inc., develops a new version of the operating system, can they name it Palm OS?

A. It would not be appropriate for ACCESS to speculate about Palm's business or any possible future product offerings.

Q. Does this agreement include licenses to other ACCESS products, such as the NetFront™ Browser that Palm's Blazer browser is based on today?

A. No. This new license agreement is a license to Palm OS Garnet source code.

Q. What does this agreement mean for third-party Palm OS developers?

A. Developers may potentially need to support an extended API set from Palm to ensure compatibility with future devices. This may mean that developers will have support several different SKUs of their applications for different devices running derivatives of Palm OS. However, keep in mind that this is not much different than the current situation today as Palm already has device specific extensions (i.e.: for Palm Treo smartphones) that developers already need to pay special attention to.

Q. Will ACCESS continue to be responsible for providing software development tools for Palm OS and derivatives?

A. That is the current intent. The Palm OS Developer Suite will continue to be maintained by ACCESS and there will continue to be commercial developer tools for Palm OS such as CodeWarrior.

Q. Will ACCESS continue to support 68K development?

A. We intend to continue providing 68K development support as long as it is needed. This is not a forced migration; customers' applications will continue to run 68K-based code and we will continue to support the 68K platform and provide 68K compatibility on future versions of Palm OS and on the ACCESS Linux Platform.

Q. What about the application compatibility program and a compatibility logo?

A. ACCESS will continue to provide a basic compatibility self test for Palm OS. We expect Palm will continue to offer their “Designed for Palm Products” logo program. Developers should continue to visit the developer areas on each company's web site for current information and any updates.

Q. What developer programs are currently available for Palm OS Garnet?

A. ACCESS recently announced the ACCESS Developer Network that features two programs--a free developer program and an invite-only program called Inside Track (which includes the early ACCESS program for previews of development tools for the ACCESS Linux Platform).

Current registered members of the PalmSource Developer Program have been migrated into the free ACCESS Developer Network program. Support for both Palm OS Garnet and the ACCESS Linux Platform is provided by the ACCESS Developer Network. For more information about the ACCESS Developer Network, please visit:

http://www.access-company.com/developers/

Palm offers the Palm Developer Network (formerly PluggedIn Program), also free for developers. Palm Developer Network supports Palm OS Garnet differentiations specific to Palm devices. Anyone interested in learning more about Palm's program should visit Palm's web site.

http://www.palm.com/developers/

Q. Will there continue to be two developer programs for Palm OS—one program from ACCESS and one program from Palm?

A. The two companies will each continue to have their own developer programs. ACCESS intends to continue working closely with Palm to ensure forward compatibility with future devices available from Palm and other ACCESS licensees.

Developers should continue to visit the developer areas on each company's web site for current information and any updates.

Copyright © 2006, ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. (formerly PalmSource, Inc.)

ACCESS, NetFront, Garnet and certain other trade names, trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of ACCESS CO., LTD. and ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc., which may be registered in Japan, the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and other countries.

PalmSource, Palm OS, Palm Powered and certain other trade names, trademarks and logos are trademarks which may be registered in the United States, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and other countries and are either owned by ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. or its affiliates, or are licensed exclusively to ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. by Palm Trademark Holding Company, LLC. These marks may not be used in connection with any product or service that does not belong to ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. (except as expressly permitted by a license with ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc.), in any manner that is likely to cause confusion among customers, or in any manner that disparages or discredits ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc., its licensor, its subsidiaries or affiliates.

The registered trademark LINUX® is owned by Linus Torvalds, owner of the mark in the U.S. and other countries, and licensed exclusively to the Linux Mark Institute.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

ACCESS Linux Platform and GHost (Garnet Host) are codenames subject to change upon release of the final product without prior notice, in the sole discretion of ACCESS CO., LTD., ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc., or the applicable third party.

All rights reserved.