“Creative Technology Ltd. on Monday filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission against Apple Computer Inc., charging the maker of the market-leading iPod media player of infringing on Creative’s patents for some of its own music-playing devices,” Rex Crum reports for MarketWatch. “Creative said that it wants the ITC to investigate whether Apple violated the Singapore-based patents for the former company’s Zen brand-name device, and is asking the organization to force Apple to stop “engaging in sales, marketing, importation or sale after importation into the United States” of what Creative called infringing iPod and iPod nano products.”
“Creative also announced that it filed suit against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for an injunction against, and undisclosed damages from Apple,” Crum reports. “Apple has the top spot in the media-player market, with more than 50 million devices sold since the iPod’s introduction in late 2001. NPD Techworld estimates that Apple has about 75% of the U.S. market for MP3 players, with all other competitors in the low single-digit range.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bobby” for the heads up.]
Okay, Derivative, er, “Creative,” we knew you secured a patent. Big deal. That was the easy part. Now, let’s see how enforceable your patent really is before the inevitable end comes to your self-declared, one-sided “war.” Apple should play some serious hardball with Creative and maybe, when all is said and done, it’ll help discourage the granting of dubious, overly-broad patents.
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Related articles:
Beleaguered Creative Technology circles the bowl – May 02, 2006
Beleaguered Creative Technology reports largest operating loss in at least five years – April 10, 2006
Joke of the Day: Red Herring headline: ‘Creative may be iPod threat’ – February 28, 2006
S&P Equity downgrades Creative Technology, cites ‘increased competition from Apple Computer’ – February 14, 2006
Apple unveils new 1GB iPod nano for $149; iPod shuffle now starting at just $69 – February 07, 2006
Beleaguered Creative reports 95-percent slump in quarterly profit – January 26, 2006
Don’t call them podcasts! Derivative, er, Creative introduces ZenCast app for ‘audio & video blogs’ – January 04, 2006
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Creative Technology’s official press relase for Zen Vision:M Apple iPod knockoff – December 08, 2005
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Beleaguered Creative waves white flag, surrenders self-declared MP3 player war to Apple iPod – November 07, 2005
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Analyst: Microsoft could buy Creative Technlogy in bid to compete with Apple iPod – July 14, 2005
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Not that it’s going any place. They seem a little late and a little short. Had this any legs it would have been filed a year or more ago.
Patent law states, among other things, that you need to vigorously enforce your patents to keep them in force. It should have been obvious to them as early as four full years ago that their patent was being infringed upon – if that was actually the case. As recently as early last year I was reading reviews of the iPod and other MP3 players that raved about how much better the iPod interface is than that of the competition – including Creative’s products. Apparently the reviewers failed to note many similarities.
I feel soooo embarrassed for Creative…it’s just a real shame to see them stoop this low…sad…
REVIEW:
WMP 11 Beats iTunes?
The new Windows Media Player shows that Microsoft can get the jump on Apple in ease of use and visual appeal.
http://www.pcmag.com/
Ruh Roh
I wonder if in their quarterly financial filings they actually give guidance on earnings based on what they may make by suing people.
From PC Mag:
“While there’s still some work to do before Microsoft launches Windows Media Player 11 for real . . .”
LMAO! I loved that line. That’s the same sort of understatement Gates and Ballmer have been saying about LongVistaHorn for close to a decade.
Microsoft. Number 1 in the world in vaporware . . . from now on.
We’re Sheeple Ready!
WMP11 Beats iTunes?
Judging by those screen shots, No.
All their doing is displaying album cover artwork as the main marker for the albums (whichever ‘browse by…’ genre is selected)
Apple’s response to fluff lawsuits like this should be to swamp Creative with legal costs. I have no sympthathy for companies that file ridiculous patents lawsuits which get granted because the U.S. patent office is too overwhelmed to check for prior art. Apple should make sure Creative literally pays for making such a claim – if Creative thinks they have a chance of winning, they are going to be in for a rude shock.
Yawn. Another day, another patent lawsuit. The media trumpets them as if a suit is suddenly going to change everything. In case you haven’t noticed, suits such as this one take many many years to come to a conclusion, and the iPod is a rapidly advancing technology. Even if, by some miracle, Creative won the suit, it would likely be irrelevant by then, the iPod having evolved into something far beyond the point of the argument. Creative (or more likely their creditors) would get a settlement, and life would go on.
BAD APPLE!
Seriously though, I hope apple’s patents are seen to be ridiculous too, meaning they can’t sue others for doing an ipod-like interface.
Actually, I have one more comment: When Creative first trumpeted their patent, I doubted a suit would ever be filed. Given how expensive such a suit can be and how long it can take to resolve, I didn’t think Creative had the finances left to survive such a campaign. That they’ve decided to go ahead and file to me shows obvious signs of desperation. Creative clearly believes they have nothing left to lose.
Sorry MacandPC, but it looks like you picked up a second rate reviewer to go with that second rate Windows OS you favor.
Go on over to Cnet’s http://www.news.com and read another review. Then read the comments by the readers. Remember, Cnet has always been very Windows centric, biased towards all things Microshaft. Judging from the comments from even the Windoze fanboys, WMP 11 sucketh the big one.
It’s really hard to compete when all you do is copy. Microsuck copies Apple, so its products will always be nothing more than cheap imitations.
“WMP 11 sucketh the big one.”
LOL! Wasn’t that foretold by Nostradamus?
So that’s two very favorable reviews, thanks Jimbo.
Oh I’m sorry, were you arguing AGAINST my point?
Miller: It’s the bottom of the ninth, two outs and Andres Gallaraga is coming to the plate for Creative. They are going to need a Kurt Gibson miracle here if they think they can beat Apple.
Kyper: And then some.
Ampar, Sheeple Ready is great. Do you like my Giants post?
UnCreative wants Apple to either a) buy their patents or b) buy their company.
!. Win 11 looks like a nightmare but hey its PC Magazine.
2. Creative Patent is a joke. Look at the menu from NeXt.
wmp 11, looks a mess, and its biggest feature – browsing by album artwork – how practical lol, i wonder if a new snazzy i-tunes will come out with leopard? with the movie download service.
Yes, Tom, I mean raster! My folks have an autographed Gallaraga ball from when he played for the Braves. Love him but the big cat is slowing down.
Who knew that Creative referred to their lawyers’ talents.
MW: true
MacandPc:
It’s a sad day when you have to rally around an unreleased application to have any hope for your platform of choice.
Even *if* WMP 11 were good (which I doubt seriously), what’s it going to run on? XP SP3 . . . er, Vista? Even Microsoft employees aren’t hopeful about that dog.
Whose going to use WMP 11? Oh, that’s right, 2 out of 10 people use some other MP3 player rather than an iPod. And 3 out of 10 buy their music online from somewhere other than iTunes.
We’re Mac people, so we’re used to being in a small marketshare. WMP 11 better get comfortable with that feeling because it ain’t gonna change. Just ask Creative.
WMP 11 and your Creative Zen what a beautiful combo.
NOT.
Useless pieces of crap…
Seriously though, I hope apple’s patents are seen to be ridiculous too, meaning they can’t sue others for doing an ipod-like interface.
Why would they bother wasting money suing companies that are basically nonentities in the Portable Music Player markets? That’s wasting money. Apple won’t have to sue em, just dominate em, and they’re doing that just fine, thankyouverymuch!
MW (I kid you not) “fiscal”: It would not make good fiscal sense for Apple to sue companies for making inferior, unsuccessful iPod wannabe products.
“It’s a sad day when you have to rally around an unreleased application…”
Uh OK, I guess I should log out of it then. Thx
I wonder how long Apple can keep unCreative busy in court before Creative simply runs out of money? After several quarters of heavy losses, aren’t they already in nosedive at low altitude?
MDN Magic Word: Yet as in, Is Creative bankrupt YET?
Browsing by album art is huge waste of real estate, inefficient and is just dumb. As usual MS tries to find an angle and misses the mark. I mean this is basic GUI design stuff.
Apple kinda blew it here. Creative has a market cap of less than $500 million. Apple should’ve purchased Creative as soon as it was clear that this was going to happen. The writing was on the wall at least 6 months ago. This will cost Apple money in legal fees and distraction. Meanwhile Apple could’ve been converting all those Cambridge Soundworks retail locations into Apple Stores, had more credibility with the a fuller launch of speaker products, etc…
Mo, you’re right. History has proven that people don’t like icons and much prefer lines of text.
Pffftt.
They have to try and make a profit some how….
SICK UM’ BOY’S!!!
WMP 11, WOW, ITS REACHED THE NUMBER! HOW CAN YOU MAKE ELEVEN VERSIONS OF CRAP?
Mo Better’
Maybe you’re only capable of looking at the pretty pictures, but when most people read, yes, they prefer lines of text.
Oh, you’re probably right. History has proven that those things called “books” will never catch on.
Guess I’ll just pitch the library card now and go buy a box of crayons.
WMP 11 Beats iTunes?
The new Windows Media Player shows that Microsoft can get the jump on Apple in ease of use and visual appeal.
—
Um.. according to Paul Thurrott.. black and techie is slick.. (think.. WinAmp)
So geeky
CONS
Manually hunting for ID3 tags can be cumbersome. Album art and details can take a long time to update. NO IPOD COMPATIBILITY.
nuff said!
It’s a shame when a company has to resort to tactics like this when all else fails, especially when you have a name like – Creative. It is just sad. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this law suit, cause when the law suit doesn’t get them anything, that’s it, there really will be nothing else they can do. So long, Creative, or not.
This will go round and round in the courts for years.
“This will go round and round. . .”
Wasn’t that a Ratt song?
If this has legs, this could be the show stopper.
I hope not….I really, really do not want to buy my music from MTV.
they call them ‘patent trolls’
http://news.com.com/Supreme+Court+rules+in+favor+of+eBay/2100-1030_3-6072150.html?tag=nefd.lede
From the PCMag article:“There was a hubbub a few months ago concerning privacy with the iTunes Mini Store because it phones home to transmit info about your listening (as do several of the popular players). For those with such concerns, the WMP 11 setup asks you if you’d like to disable the auto-connect capabilities, which are set on by default. At any time, you can turn off features that require connecting to the Internet”
I will believe this when I see it and it’s bullshit. With WMP 10, you can turn off the same options. Guess what? If you are using a PC with a firewall that is any good and you check your outgoing logs, WMP 10 Still connects to DOZENS of sites to transmit player usage/artist info – EVEN WITH THESE OPTIONS TURNED OFF. Yes, they let you turn off certain features to make you feel like you are maintaining your privacy, but in reality they are still aggregating data about your player and it’s usage. I’ve got the logs to prove it. The firewall on my Win notebook (Agnitum Outpost Pro V2.7 – any version after that is BLOATWARE) has WMP permanently on the restricted list – I won’t let it send outgoing data of any type. Paranoid? Maybe – but it’s so nice to check the logs and see that WMP was blocked attempting to call out.
They should sell ‘Creative’ and give the money back to the shareholders®
Apple $67.79/ Creative $5.46.
Pretty much sums up the reason for the suit.
Mike >
Well, kind of – but the real story if you want to go there is:in the market caps for the two companies…
AAPL: $57.527 billion
CREAF: $456.41 million
So that’s two orders of magnitude and then some more in terms of differences between Apple and Creative; if memory serves, Apple has never been valued at less than 1% of MSFT’s mkt cap even at the lowest point in its fortunes so one could argue that this is pretty much a make-or-break thing for Creative or its going to find itself kicked out of Nasdaq for trading at less than $1.
“Under Section 337 of the United States Tariff Act of 1930, imported products that allegedly violate United States intellectual property rights can be barred from entry into the United States…Section 337 gives U.S. intellectual property owners a major advantage over foreign competitors, who face expensive litigation and the threat of harassment.”
while i’m not familiar with the entire Tariff Act, it appears to me that this is for protection from *foreign* competitors. Apple is a U.S. company that has deals with manufacturers overseas.
— nipped from the iLounge comments
If you can’t beat ’em sue ’em?! 😮
People mention Creative running out of money (for legal costs)… not likely with Microsoft sitting in the bushes and helping finance things.
What a coincidence that this un-Creative suit comes out at the same time Microsoft “releases” (introduces) WMP11 (and MTVs Urge), the next “iPod/iTunes killer”.
Might as well attack Apple on multiple fronts…
…
MS would never finance something like this. They’re already hated by all as it is. Right now MS is doing everything they can to reverse their image, they r not going to do anything like financing a lawsuit for something like this against one of their competitors and platforms.
iHave being doing most of what the Creative’s “Zen” patent has claimed since MP3’s came out in the mid 90’s. How the hell did creative even get a patent like this when hierarchal menu driven systems have been out since the dawn of mankind? iGuess if the patent office if going to grant patents such as this and those for genes, then iNeed to get on the ball and patent that method & procedure for a mammal to grow hair.
All thing indicate that iWould get it, and then iCan collect royalties from everyone in the world. Additional bonus for those w/ mammailian pets!
*been not being