Motorola may have invented the analog cellphone. And Nokia may have invented the digital cellphone. But it’s Palm that invented a lot of what we call “mobile computing” today. Before there were smartphones, there were personal digital assistants. They had app stores, they came in various screen sizes, the later models could even be used as audio and video players. Palm used to be the king of this space, but they failed to leverage all that talent into something that could compete with Android and iOS.

HP, recognizing that Palm had a rich history, bought Palm and their massive portfolio of patents. Soon after that happened, the company’s CEO had to step down because of a sex scandal. His replacement frankly didn’t care about Palm, and so they died on the vine. LG bought webOS, Palm’s mobile operating system, and now today, Qualcomm has announced that they’re going to pay an untold sum of money for approximately 2,400 Palm patents.

What exactly is Qualcomm going to do with Palm’s patents? That’s a question that can only be answered with time. Qualcomm isn’t known to be a patent troll, but with this treasure trove, they might become one. It’s also worth noting that Qualcomm’s expertise lies in the difficult modem and application processor business, so I don’t exactly know what they would do with Palm’s user interface patents.

As someone who has owned multiple Palm devices during the 90s, I’m disappointed that HP didn’t treat the once-powerful PDA company with a little more respect.