ComTech News

Way back in May of this year reported on a Creative Labs law suit against Apple in our post, “Ipod Violates a Patent“. The suit centered around the way that songs and titles were organized for navigation on the Ipod and Creative claimed that said navigation scheme was developed by their company for their MP3 Player and Digital Media Player interfaces.

Nobody thought much of this at the time wondering how setting up the way titles display (which is almost identical to the file system used on most PCs) could possibly be protected under a patent.

Well Apple Computer must have felt quite a bit of pressure about this issue because they just agreed to settle the issue by paying Creative Labs a 100 Million dollar lisencing fee. Which will cover life time use of technology.

Apple may have just figured buying Creative off was the best long term play or they may have been more afraid of loosing the case in any event Ipod Users can now be sure that they file system will remain the same. As for Creative Labs, their biggest competitor was just forced to contribute 100 Million dollars to them, my bet is a lot will go into development new products, designed of course to compete with Apple. Irony at its’ finest in my opinion.

The problem for others though is now if they are going to use a file system that looks anything like Creative’s or Apples there is now a precedent for the need of a lisence. With the settlement coming “out of court” it will not carry the weight of a true legal ruling but it indeed could be a big road bump for anyone competing in the digital media space in the future. In the end that could be the real reason Apple settled the case.

Both companies are spinning the event in a positive light but anyone can see the company that got a 100 million dollar check is the clear winner here.

~Jack Spirko

Technorati Tags: Creative Labs, Apple, Ipod, MP3 Player, Digital Media Player, Apple Computer, Ipod Violates a Patent

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