“Apple Computer, maker of the iPod music player, is suing Creative Technology, raising the stakes in the legal dispute over competing devices,” Bloomberg News reports. “Apple claims Creative Labs, the U.S. division of Creative Technology, infringes four patents in its hand-held digital players. The suit was filed in a Wisconsin District Court on May 15, the same day Creative filed a lawsuit and a trade complaint against Apple.”
“Creative filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission seeking an order to block imports of the iPod, most of which are made in China. A lawsuit the company filed against Apple in District Court in San Francisco is likely to be put on hold while the trade complaint is heard,” Bloomberg reports. “The iPod controls 77 percent of the U.S. market, compared with less than 10 percent for Creative.”
Full article here.
Hoo said they wanted a war?
Advertisements:
• Introducing the super-fast, blogging, podcasting, do-everything-out-of-the-box MacBook. Starting at just $1099
• Get the new iMac with Intel Core Duo for as low as $31 A MONTH with Free shipping!
• Get the MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo for as low as $47 A MONTH with Free Shipping!
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
Related articles:
Apple suit seen hurting beleaguered Creative in long run – May 17, 2006
a href=”http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/9573/”>Beleaguered Creative’s lawsuit against Apple for alleged iPod patent infringement shows desperation – May 16, 2006
Beleaguered Creative sues Apple for alleged iPod patent infringement – May 15, 2006
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
Creative’s Zen Vision:M green with Apple iPod envy – December 09, 2005
Apple faces prospect of bruising iPod patent dispute from Creative Technology – December 09, 2005
Creative Technology’s official press relase for Zen Vision:M Apple iPod knockoff – December 08, 2005
Creative’s Sim Wong Hoo vows to ‘aggressively pursue’ Apple over iPod patent – December 08, 2005
Creative announces 30GB Zen Vision:M video-enabled ‘iPod killer’ – December 07, 2005
Beleaguered Creative waves white flag, surrenders self-declared MP3 player war to Apple iPod – November 07, 2005
Beleaguered Creative shifts promotional efforts from music players to new sound card line – September 21, 2005
Apple debuts iPod nano, iTunes 5: how are Microsoft, Napster, Real, Creative, Sony feeling today? – September 08, 2005
Creative explores new way to beat Apple iPod: patent litigation – August 30, 2005
Creative plans ‘very vigorous defense’ of iPod navigation patent – August 31, 2005
Beleaguered Creative Technology’s ‘war’ on Apple iPod not faring well – August 15, 2005
Apple’s iPod shine dims beleaguered Creative Technology’s outlook – August 08, 2005
Microsoft not buying stake in Creative Technology – August 02, 2005
Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo adds fronts to war against Apple iPod – August 01, 2005
Analyst: Microsoft could buy Creative Technlogy in bid to compete with Apple iPod – July 14, 2005
Beleaguered Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo ‘optimistic’ the company will survive ‘MP3 war’ – July 01, 2005
Beleaguered Creative may have to write off unsold stock as losses loom – June 28, 2005
Creative Tech’s reduced outlook drags on Apple, PortalPlayer, SigmaTel – June 27, 2005
Creative Tech cuts sales outlook, drags Apple down in early trading – June 27, 2005
Apple passed 20 million iPods sold milestone in early June – June 24, 2005
Apple’s understanding of what really counts makes iPod+iTunes impossible to beat – June 22, 2005
Creative Technology shares slide to lowest mark in almost two years – May 18, 2005
Apple squeezes and Creative’s profit plunges 72-percent – April 23, 2005
Apple iPod pressure forces Creative to drop prices on music players – March 01, 2005
Creative’s self-declared ‘MP3 player war’ against Apple isn’t going very well – January 20, 2005
Creative CEO: Apple iPod shuffle ‘a big let-down, worse than the cheapest Chinese player’ – January 12, 2005
Creative declares ‘war’ on Apple iPod, shoots for 40% market share of MP3 players – December 21, 2004
Creative Technology declares ‘MP3 War’ against market-dominating Apple iPod – November 17, 2004
Mossberg: Dell, Rio, Creative ‘iPod mini killers’ lag badly behind Apple iPod mini – October 27, 2004
Creative pushes to become ‘Pepsi’ to Apple’s ‘Coke’ in digital music player market – August 07, 2004
I think Apple had these patent suits drawn up a looooong time ago, just in case Creative decided to get cocky with their silly little patent. And I guess they did.
Smithers! Release the hounds.
Hey, does anyone remember when they used to refer to Apple as “beleaguered”? How things change…
Lets Get Ready to Rumble
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”cool mad” style=”border:0;” />
You all must have come down in the last shower to be suprised at the tactic of countersuing when faced with a lawsuit, or to regard it as a new brilliant strategy.
And soon Creative will be 20,000 B Leagues under the sea.
That’s what you get when you try to sort out your blackmail ahead of time – your target gets a chance to prep instant retaliation.
I LIKE the idea of Apple suing them into bankruptcy and buying their ashes for a song – that’ll give Apple some incentive to use the sound technologies they would then own. Yo! Intel! We’d like this One More Thing with our chipsets …
WTF was ‘Creative’ thinking?
Time to short some more.
MDN Magic Word: “months”, how many more before ‘Creative’ is no more?
in a way, this is sad, because objectively imho, Creative does make some of the nicest mp3 players, next to Apple. Personally I much prefer the all touch interface that Apple left behind for the click wheel, and I played a bit with the Zen Micro and the touch interface was actually quite nice. I can’t speak to the music management software, and of course I like iTunes and would not switch. But their engineers make nice quality players…just take a peek at Amazon…it is fairly impressive. Too bad Woo just didn’t remain peaceful and let his product catch on over time. I would rather Creative take share than Microsoft with their Xpod.
I love a good fight. This time Goliath will beat the heck out of David.
bet creative didn’t expect this….now they’re on the shit end of the stick
Beleaguered Creative
I’m starting to think that is the actual name of the company with all the headlines MDN has with that in it!
in 20 years, there will be only 2 jobs left in the US….
Lawyers
Lawyers’ IT guys.
which are you?
my patent is bigger than your patent!
Hoo boy, this is gonna get messy.
Got the popcorn ready
If this is a war then Creative started it and now Apple will finish it.
In the immortal words of Slim Pickens SAC pilot character in “Dr. Stranglove” as he rode astride a nuclear bomb plummeting toward earth somewhere over the soviet union, “Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooo….!”
In the immortal words of Captain Woodrow Coll in “Lonesome Dove”, after administering a nearly fatal thrashing to a mean army scout, “I hate rudeness in a man. I won’t tolerate it.” Go get ’em, Steve.
Secret Recording of Steve Jobs Talking with Apple Legal:
HERE
Transcription:
————
Apple Legal: “We’ll agree to pay. We’ll tell him we need time to get the money together.”
Steve : “Wait a minute, do I get this right? You’re gonna play this creeps game?”
Apple Legal: “It will get us more breathing space.”
Steve: “So it might get somebody killed. Why don’t you let me meet with the son-of-a-bitch.”
I am fed up with lawsiuts…but this one I kind of like. Creative is so fundamentally bda karma so let´s bury them. In the ITworld there are three persons I really can´t stand ; Sim Hoo, Rob Glaser and Steve Ballmer, theyr´e all in the same categori
MDN word gave, as in creative finally gave up.
Creative is so gone with the wind.
They broke the status quo with patents.
This will eat all their cash if there is something left anymore.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Steve really deserves the Steve Jobs Award
You guys are on drugs.
Creative has a patent which specifically describes exactly the iPod interface. It’s not just for a heirachical menu, but for one used in exactly the same way it is in the iPod. that eliminates a lot of what you claim as prior art.
Why wouldn’t they try to enforce it?
If Microsoft cloned OS-X you’d be chanting how great it was that Apple was using it’s patents to go after Microsoft.
Software patents as a rule are F***’d up, many should never be granted. But then somone sucessfully patented the stick. So lets assume that’s not going to change.
If you have the legal right to demand competitor cease and desist from using a piece of technology that the patent office agrees with you that you invented, only a foolish businessman would not use it.
If the patent is weak, look for it to be overturned. More likely look for Apple to pay Creative money to go away, or a cross licensing deal to be made based on the counterclaims.
To say that this would kill creative is just silly. If Apple had a strong patent infringement case against them, they would have shot first.
This guys is a negotiating tactic, nothing more.
seriously ‘down’ how many ways can you form a menu to show:
Artists
Albums
Songs
Every player does that, so they should sue all of them.
How else can you sort CD info?
Musicians?
CDs?
Tunes?
These menus are common denominators to basic search functions to arrange our music. Creative should not be able to patent that.
MDN word enough: that’s enough already
since the ipod is what is keeping apple afloat they have a reason to be concerned.
Wis-cahn-sin? wunder why they filed it dere, ya hey.