TCL confirms purchase of Palm trademarks, solicits product ideas from the public

As suggested last week, it seems that TCL, parent company of Alcatel Onetouch, has indeed purchased the rights to the Palm trademarks from HP and plans to launch new devices under that banner. What new devices, exactly, is still a mystery, however.

Today TCL CEO George Guo said that he believed the existing value of the Palm brand had piqued the company’s interest in acquiring the trademarks, though it seems it did so without much of a plan for the future. The executive said that the Palm name will be brought back to the market, but TCL is hoping that the public will provide ideas for products it can produce under the brand.

While TCL will contribute research, development, and engineering resources to these products, the hope is that the tech community will actually do much of the work on its own. The process for taking these ideas from concepts to reality still hasn’t been plotted out, but Guo says whatever happens, the popular webOS won’t be making a comeback (as it was not part of the brand deal and instead belongs to LG).

It will certainly be interesting to see how these plans play out for TCL. A community-based revival of a once-popular brand name is an intriguing concept, but the lack of planning and forethought that went into this decision could have a big impact on its overall success.