[jjesusfreak01]

This patent is obviously illegal to me. If anyone remembers, RadioShack (among others) sells a remote control called the Kameleon. It selectively illuminates its hardbuttons (they are actually hardbuttons), and in some cases only part of the hardbuttons. Besides the color clause, which probably violates some other patent, this completely infringes on patents held regarding the Kameleon remote. Even if its inventors dont hold the patents, they can easily sue and get them back. I dont know what Palm is thinking.

Edit: It seems the first line of the abstract is missing. It does state that this patent only applies to Palmtop devices. Knowing this, there may sometime be a conflict with the technology allowing semi hardbuttons on a PDA screen by dynamically hardening portions of the screen. This would nearly accomplish the same thing, or would allow through simple software, the same function.