Apple starts to get Creative on patents

By Stan Beer
Friday, 19 May 2006 17:32

Home IT

In some ways one has to sympathise with the plight of companies like Creative. They think they've invented the safety pin but discover that inventions are only as good as the company that takes them to market.

At the moment Creative stocks are at an all-time low, while Apple Computer's price is in the stratosphere. There were more than a few market watchers who believed that the Creative lawsuit launched against Apple this week was simply a ploy to make some quick money in an out of court settlement. If so, then it has back-fired.

Instead of begging Creative to to leave it alone with the inducement of a cash settlement, Apple has fired back with its own lawsuit.

Creative, which makes a range of MP3 players called Zen, had alleged that the Apple iPod user interface infringed on patents Creative owns concerning the method in which users search for music on portable MP3 devices.

Now Apple has alleged that Creative has infringed on its iPod patents.

In a sense, Apple is saying enough is enough. Creative may well have developed a system for searching for music on an MP3 player. However, Apple is the company that brought iPod to the market and created the brand. Creative brought out its first MP3 player in 2000. It had two years head start. Yet in a few short years, Apple has managed to capture 80% of the market with iPod, while Zen is still a name associated with Buddhism rather than music.