“Apple Computer has filed a second copyright lawsuit and a trade complaint in the US against Creative Technology,” Loh Kim Chin reports for Channel NewsAsia. “In its latest lawsuit, Apple claims Creative is infringing three patents relating to using icons, and displaying and editing data… Creative initiated the legal tussle when it sued Apple last month for infringing a patent its subsidiary in the US owned.”
According to the report, Apple is asking for cash damages, a court order to stop Creative from further breaches, and for the International Trade Commission in Washington to block imports of Creative’s music players.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Derivative’s legal costs mount. That can’t be good for a company that can’t make a profit and lost $114.3 million in the most recent quarter ended March 31st.
[UPDATE: 9:52am EDT: Updated headline for clarity.]
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Die Creative Die!
When a little dog barks and yaps at the big dog, eventually the big dog will get irritated enough to take action.
Let’s see them get creative now.
Sim Wong Ding Dong wanted a war, now he’s got one. Be careful what you wish for.
I hope MDN is working on a new “black ribbon” theme for the website to display on days when the blood-on-the-click-wheel mounts.
This is perfect for Creative. When they finally close the lid, they can say Apple sued them out of business. Rather than they couldn’t compete.
I think we should all join in and sue Creative! Who’s with me?!! Let’s get going……
Owner’s of Creative’s MP3 players are filing a class action lawsuit for being sold a crappy device. All 8 of the people that bought a Creative device have agreed to the lawsuit and are expected tens of dollars in the settlement.
Meanwhile, environmentalists are upset over the thousands of unsold Creative devices getting dumped in landfills.
Oh we longtime Mac users have been waiting for this retibution on Creative for a long long time.
You see Creative bought 3Dlabs, which made the most awesome video cards for high end 3D rendering for Lightwave and Maya uses.
They would not, no matter how much we begged, put out a card/driver for Mac’s. Their moderators on their forums board would laugh in our face.
Creative though they were some kind of big shot company, even Steve Jobs hates them.
SO TO HEAR THIS is such great news! So just keep mounting the pressure Apple, buy the company, get 3Dlabs and liquidate the mother company Creative.
GO APPLE!!
This is what happens when you put lawyers in charge of determining the strategic vision of a company, Creative.
Good move on Apple’s part. Squeeze them where it matters, and hit ’em with lawsuit after lawsuit if that’s how they want to play the game.
MDN, you need to update the title – it’s confusing. This is the second lawsuit filed by Apple, not a “second copyright lawsuit.” The first was a patent lawsuit, this is one involves copyrights. Perhaps a simple “Apple files second lawsuit against beleaguered Creative Technology” would be better in this case.
MDN word : served, as in Stick a fork in Creative and turn them over. They´re served !
You mess with the bull.. you get the horns…
MDN word “fear”… as in, creative.. be afraid… be very afraid..
Stat Mesh, thanks for the info. I knew there had been something like that, but didn’t know the story.
This is quite a move, that’s for sure.
this is getting a bit retarded.
as a Mac and iPod user, who thinks Creative mp3 players suck, i think this whole legal fights is showing how both companies have a tendency to behave like highschoolers.
Creative’s stupid for starting a fight they can’t win and Apple’s childish for being egotistical enough to say, “Get your mp3 player out of MY market.”
(for me, just because I admire a company [Apple] doesn’t mean that I have to look at nearly everything they do as being a stroke of genius.)
honestly, i’m a bit surprised that no one has called both companies out on how silly they are behaving so far.
DW, sorry to say, but Apple is not being silly here. Creative, if you recall, filed their lawsuit and began by asking the judge to issue an order to halt sales of all iPods immediately. That is a very serious threat to Apple’s business and financial viability.
Let’s say you owned a Mom-n-Pop shop that sells hand-woven baskets. These baskets are very popular and people from all around the world come to your store to buy the baskets.
Then the business across the street suddenly sues you for copying their basket design, and subsequently asks the court to shut down your infringing business until the suit is resolved. In fact, they say not only should you stop selling your baskets, you should pay them money for all the ones you already sold.
Are you going to take the “high road” and say, “Well, I don’t want to be silly by engaging in all this nonsense lawsuits?” Because if you don’t sic your lawyers on the other business, you might as well just sign the deed away.
In the same way, Apple is not “being silly” – Apple clearly knew they had a whole variety of patents related to the iPod, and have thus far chosen to stay out of the lawsuit business. Apple did not choose to sue other companies in order to compete in the music player business.
Creative, on the other hand, truly believed that it held the keys to Apple’s fortunes via a single patent that is so obvious and undermined by prior art that it deserves everything is has coming to them.
I should add that what’s amazing in this whole affair is how surprised Creative seemed to be when Apple counter-sued them for infringing on 4 patents related to the iPod.
“Apple never mentioned they had iPod patents when we were meeting privately to extort a payment from them!” seems to be the flabbergasted blathering that was coming out of Creative at the time.
I mean, where does Creative get their lawyers? A simple patent search would have turned out a trove of information of all the patents Apple owned related to the iPod. Did they really think they could sue to shut down a $6 billion a year business and think Apple would just sit there and let them divide up the company?
The only explanation is that Creative really is so deluded by their own megalomania, that they fully expected Apple to cave immediately and admit the iPod was somehow stolen from the secret labs of Creative.
It’s so satisfying in karmic terms to see a company going down the tubes spend its last precious cash reserves on lawyers instead of developing new products. SCO anyone?
Creative takes the special bus.
DW: You’re naive. Your world-perspective would benefit from expansion.
NewType –
For the most part, I agree with you. But, no I would take the “high road”, honestly. But, the way both of these comanies are being childish is that neither of them wants to sit and talk.
So, what would I do? I’d contact Creative and let them know that I have very powerful ammunition against them and that they will lose – and people will lose their jobs, etc.
If Creative were still dumb enough to go forth, then I will certainly sic my lawyers on them.
But, Apple nor Creative has honestly searched for a diplomatic solution. They’ve simply gone for the, “You and your friends wanna fight, so meet me after school with me and my friends and we’ll fight” attack.
Childish, dude.
(Now, oddly, looking back at what you, myself and everyone else on this board has written, I can see that none of us really know what’s going on with Creative and Apple – other than what they want us to know, that is. It’s all speculation and opinion. I suppose I’m done, then.)
ciao
This is really a shame.
Creative’s foolish ‘iPod War’ notwithstanding, this company used to make the best soundcards in the business. When I was more of a PCer, these guys were real innovators in what they knew how to do best. From what I can tell now, Turtle Beach has pretty much become the card to buy these days, if you even need one now that good digital audio signal processing has become ubiquitous on Mobos (not the best option, but thankfully of a much better quality than integrated graphics processing).
Anyway, Creative’s getting involved in PADs may have wound up destroying a once great company.
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DW,
You have no way of knowing that what you suggest as “the high road” didn’t occur. Apple may well have done this.
In any event, there’s one thing you’ve missed. If Apple didn’t *vigorously* defend themselves from the Creative lawsuit they would be leaving themselves open for a lawsuit from their own shareholders.
Corporations have many qualities of individuals, but they’re completely different organisms. Consequently, the standards for “good” behavior in corporations is different.
DW…by reacting and reacting strongly to this sort of crap Creative is attempting sends a CLEAR message to other companies:
…”Don’t mess with us unless you have something indisputable”.
If Apple doesn’t so this, then they will be nickeled and dimed by small groups trying for a piece of the action with little risk involved.
Kick their ass Apple and kick it HARD!!!
Nice to see most conversations going back and fourth to DW in an explanatory tone and not too condescending.
It’s clear many posts are coming from minds that clearly have some corporate understanding of how the Fortune 500 game works – and must work.
I should think DW can walk away with this seeing many more perspectives on corporate life and the way corporate governance must proceed.
Many angles to a dispute, and it was great to see NewType and Darkness point out some other motives.
~Steven
Static Mesh said: “Oh we longtime Mac users have been waiting for this retibution on Creative for a long long time.
You see Creative bought 3Dlabs, which made the most awesome video cards for high end 3D rendering for Lightwave and Maya uses.
They would not, no matter how much we begged, put out a card/driver for Mac’s. Their moderators on their forums board would laugh in our face.”
I’m glad I’m not the only one holding a long standing grudge with these bastards!
Rock on Static Mesh!
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MD Magic Word: “times” Dylan was right, “… the times they are a changing”.
Creative …. take it up the ass!