Unresolved Xircom Patent Problem May Go to Court

Xircom Inc., the Thousand Oaks-based mobile information access company, has dropped its attempts to resolve a patent infringement problem with 3Com Corp., which now appears headed to a federal court.

In May, 3Com sued Xircom for allegedly infringing on two patents. At first, 3Com opted not to go to court and approached Xircom with a licensing proposal for its patents.

Randall H. Holliday, Xircom’s general counsel, said the company takes “intellectual property rights very seriously” but doesn’t believe 3Com’s complaint is merited.

“Xircom is committed to an aggressive response to 3Com’s decision to pursue this litigation and we are fully prepared and intend to mount an aggressive defense to 3Com’s baseless allegations,” Holliday said.

Xircom designs and develops solutions that connect mobile users worldwide to corporate networks, the Internet, Intranets and other online resources. It has more than 1,800 employees worldwide.