Palm’s appeal to the USB Implementers Forum has had pretty much the polar opposite of the effect it was hoping for, with the USB IF ruling in Apple’s favour on pretty much all counts.

Apple’s repeated blocking of Palm’s Pre Smartphone from the sync functionality had begun to stick in Palm’s craw a little. While Apple was busy making iTunes updates to specifically block the Pre, it seems that Palm’s response was to essentially hijack the USB Vendor ID used by Apple’s iPod line to trick iTunes into believing that Palm’s hardware was Apple approved, and for a while it worked (right down to the Pre having an iPod image under iTunes).

When Apple updated iTunes at its recent Rock and Roll event, it nailed Palm again, killing functionality with the Pre once more. Palm, evidently sick of the cat and mouse blocking and unblocking business, appealed to the USB IF in an attempt to get a ruling against Apple’s seemingly closed-platform use of USB… it didn’t really work out for them though, with the USB IF ruling strongly against Palm, saying that,

“Under the Policy, Palm may only use the single Vendor ID issues to Palm for Palm’s usage. Usage of any other Vendor ID is specifically precluded. Palm’s expressed intent to use Apple’s Vendor ID appears to violate the attached policy.”

Moreover, it’s not just that the means Palm had been using to jury-rig itself some iTunes sync functionality that the USB IF has ruled against. Apparently, it’s entirely understanding of Apple’s wish to keep its software closed to other people’s hardware, which leaves Palm kind of high and dry, considering the fact that it sold the Pre with iTunes functionality as a main feature.

If you’re interested, you can read more about the whole business over at Softpedia.