Creative Officially Sues Apple
A while back Creative brought this patent infringement to the table, claiming that Apple had duplicated their “Zen Patent”. Creative has finally stepped up to the plate to defend their intellectual property by filing an official complaint to the US International Trade Commission. The “Zen Patent” basically refers to Creative’s music interface first used in their NOMAD Jukebox back in 2000, 13 months before Apple announced the first iPod.
If Creative were to win this lawsuit, they have two options: collect licensing fees from Apple for each unit sold retrospectively and in the future or if they don’t want to collect licensing fees they could force Apple to stop making the iPod and collect damages. The patent is vague so it will probably end up being another RIM versus NTP type fiasco.
My thoughts on this case can be found in a post back in August titled, “Apple Copied Creative, Who cares?”. Basically, this case among many others like “RIM vs. NTP” shows how broken the US patent system really is.
Update: Apple is now suing Creative for similarly ridiculous patent claims.
[Creative Press Release] thanks davinp
Comments
Kamil Mytnik on May 16, 2006 9:47 PM
Apple fanboys are running rampant and pissed off about this like crazy, one quick glance at the news article on www.engadget.com and youll see theyre going at it as if steve jobs' was giving out his dong for all on christmas.
BUT if Apple was suing Creative, theyd be praising apple....friggin' hypocrites.
Fact is:
Creative has a patent, Apple violated it, a law is a law. Laws arent made for Apple to have bent/broken in their favor.
r on May 16, 2006 11:32 PM
Man... you are right... iPod Fanboyism is at an all time high!
Bobby T. on May 23, 2006 12:37 PM
Guess what? Apple is suing creative...
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/18/business/ipod.php
I still havn't found a report on this site about that, however...
Bobby T. on May 23, 2006 12:58 PM
Oh, and I wanted to point out that I'm not praising Apple over the suit, but simply trying to point it out since this site is supposed to be informative (if you don't report both sides, you aren't truely informative).
As a matter of the fact the only person on this page praising anybody about a suit is "Kamil Mytnik"... So who exactly is the hypocrite here???
e on May 23, 2006 1:28 PM
@Bobby T.
You seem to be spending alot of time on a site you obviously dont like.
crazymouse on July 3, 2006 8:23 PM
@Bobby T.
In what way is Kamil a hypocrite? All he or she said what that a lawsuit is logical for a patent infringeming. You even prooved his/her point by stating that there was a lawsuit filed by apple. A patent was broken, therefore a lawsuit is necessary, that's all Kamil was saying. If creative violated patent laws also, then yes, there should be a lawsuit.
Now, if Kamil said something like "OMG apple Sux, it's about time they get sued." that would be a different story, wouldn't it. You need to pay more attention to what people say before you make a judgement.
Also, about that article with apple filing a lawsuit, could you find more sources for me? I can't seem to find any others that give more information. Thanks in advance.
dude on July 19, 2006 9:17 PM
they world just need to see that creative rocks as ever and ipod sucks donkey dicks as always hahaha