Apple sues Creative over patents
updated 06:15 pm EDT, Thu May 18, 2006
Apple vs. Creative
Apple this week filed a lawsuit against its smaller rival Creative Technologies, after it publicized its lawsuit and government complaint against the Cupertino-based iPod maker earlier this week. According to Bloomberg News, Apple has sued Creative in federal court in Wisconsin on Monday, the same day Creative filed its patent suit against Apple, alleging that Creative has infringed on four of Apple's patents. Earlier this week, Creative announced it had filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) as well as filed a lawsuit for in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit seeks an injunction and increased damages for Apple's willful infringement of U.S. Patent 6,928,433 (the "Zen Patent"), while the USITC complaint requests that the Commission begin an investigation of whether Apple has violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 through its importation and sale after importation into the United States of iPods and iPod Nanos that infringe the Zen Patent.
"Creative proactively held discussions with Apple in our efforts to explore amicable solutions," Phil O'Shaughnessy, a spokesman for Creative, told Bloomberg. "At no time during these discussions or at any other time did Apple mention to us the patents it raised in its lawsuit."
Meanwhile, Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo told the BBC that he will aggressively protect his company's US "Zen Patent" relating to the navigation of music on MP3 or other audio players and hopes to earn royalties from other manufacturers that use the patented navigations system. He also noted that Creative is already in talks with parties over the Zen Patent, which was awarded in August of last year.
"Hopefully this will be friendly, but people have to respect intellectual property," Sim said.
LOL
05/18, 06:29pm reply
Sim eats Jobs's REDEEMER Sim fragged to oblivion Sim ends up in chunks in some won ton soup
jarod
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2005
Anyone notice...
05/18, 06:47pm reply
That Creative's stock symbol is CREAF... which is phonetically similar to "queef" ?
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&client=safari&rls=en&q=define%3A+queef&btnG=Search
Their market cap is $488 million... Apple should buy them.. and the patents... offer stock holders 3X their current value, then spin off the audio hardware "department" into it's own entity with Apple's Pro Audio apps.
zerologic
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2000
APple has prior art
05/18, 06:55pm reply delete
So this law suit will be thrown out. Apple suing Creative though, probably has legs.
GodsiPod
Joined:
Are you 4?
05/18, 06:55pm reply
Seriously, are you 4 years old? I'll be impressed if you are because using the word "phonetically" would be impressive then, even if your sentence is biggest waste of electrons.
jasong
Mac Elite
Joined: Mar 2000
Hey zerologic
05/18, 08:16pm reply
I had the same idea about buying the company but it think that at this point, since Creative is not profitable, a premium of only 25% would be enough.
gate
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2004
Subject of Apple's suits
05/18, 11:15pm reply
It would be nice if the writer had either a) provided the gist of Apple's claims against Creative or b) a link to the Bloomberg article that might tell us that. I'm disappointed that this article just went over the same tired ground of Creative's suit without assessing Apple's suit's merits.
nitewing98
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 2005
Interesting?
05/18, 11:23pm reply
"At no time during these discussions or at any other time did Apple mention to us the patents it raised in its lawsuit."
So, why should Apple tell Creative its legal strategy? Creative will go bankrupt "protecting" its patent while defending against Apple protecting its patents.
kw99
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2001
NOT ONLY THAT...
05/18, 11:46pm reply
but Creative was awarded the patent last August... way too late to enforce on Apple (and pretty much everyone else using similar navigation systems) who have been using it for at least 5 years.
MacDog
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2003
not worth even $488M
05/19, 12:06am reply delete
Take a closer look at CREAF's stock chart - it lost 25% of its value in the last 3 months and the downtrend appears to be steepening. Apple may not even need to pay a premium to buy the company,since by the time the case goes to court Creative should be worth half of what it is today...
Sanjuro
Joined:
lets get it on!
05/19, 03:44am reply delete
my money is on fedor by knockout
daprguy
Joined: