“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 $114.3 million in the most recent quarter ended March 31st.
[UPDATE: 9:52am EDT: Updated headline for clarity.]
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I suppose this is for everyone –
Darkness, I agree with your first line completely. I don’t know if Apple/Creative have tried the “high road”. None of us do. That’s what I was trying to get across in the last line of my previous post. I can’t argue that (nor can any of us) simply because we don’t know.
*Although, for folks who admit they don’t know much, we sure have a habit of assuming we do*
Impressed, (“Nice to see most conversations going back and fourth to DW in an explanatory tone and not too condescending.”). Very good point.
All-in-all, I supposed I just thought a company like Apple would publicly try to handle things diplomatically first. (Though, we don’t know if they did privately or not.)
I am so glad Apple is giving it back. Sure, a diplomatic approach might have been nice, but Creative made it very clear that they didn’t have any intentions of doing it that way. The most effective way to shut that kind of attack down is to just say, “shove it” right back.
As a Mac lifer I have never really seen the point of Creative anyway. Evidently they make good sound cards, but my onboard has been more than adequate for me. Only my PC friends seem to care, and since they use Windows, obviously their opinion is worthless. (JK, don’t kill me random M$uck lover lurking in the darkness…)
My only regret is that if the speculation that Creative is going out (and I don’t think they are) we iPoders won’t have any more Creative joke products to poke fun at any more. What would we do for entertainment when the buds aren’t in our ears?
Can’t he just admit he was Wong?
In the software game every big player knows every other big player in the game has a mutually destructive collection of patents and copyrights. Just like atomic warfare, you don’t fire the first shot in a war you both will lose.
The best case scenario for Creative would be a mutual sharing of patents with no money changing hands and only the lawyers showing financial gain.
Being the aggressor in this war I don’t like Creative’s chances of breaking even in this skirmish. In fact, I don’t even like Creative’s chances of surviving this battle intact.
MicroSoft vs. Symantec. That’s going to be a fun lawsuit to watch.
“Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon”
– Boy George
DW: “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.”
I disagree DW. Creative isn’t joking with this. They actually want (need?) to win this lawsuite for the $$. This is beyond stupid, this was a calculated desperate move on Creative’s part. Everything about it (their very vague pattent, their timing for filing the suite etc) screams of corporate thievery via the courts AND they’re not going to be the last company to try this with Apple!
To me Apple needs to kick the ever loving sh*t out of them and make an example for any underhanded company (large or small) that may try to pull some opertunistic crap like this in the future.
Apple isn’t always right, and I certainly don’t always agree with some of the court crap they pull, but when they are right and it’s clear that they’re being taken advantage of, they need to turn and fight and fight to the death. Creative deserves nothing less.
It’s clear to everyone what Creative is trying to pull and why. If this wasn’t the case, why aren’t they sueing ALL the companies that made mp3 players or jukebox software and used a menu system?
You guys are making a bad image of Apple fans. You punk ass motherfuckers, go back to fuckin primary school.
That comment above from “YOu guys…” looks like a good candidate for the ‘ol FLUSH from the MDN webmaster. All vitriol and no substance. Certainly no class or creativity with the English language, that’s for sure.