[Ecommerce] Creative Technology beats Apple on MP3 patent

[Michelle Childs]

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/08/30/apple_creativepatent/
By Gavin Clarke in San Francisco 30 Aug 2005 20:02
Creative Technology beats Apple on MP3 patent
Creative Technology has been crowing after it was awarded a patent for MP3
player interface technology used by devices like rival Apple's popular
iPod.

Creative, maker of the Creative Zen and Nomad Jukebox MP3 players, said
Tuesday it was "very excited" by the patent award, adding this
"recognized" the company's innovation in this highly competitive and
lucrative field.

The chuffed Creative reminded the MP3 buying public and a fickle industry,
that it - and not its sexier, market leading rival Apple - was first to
market with an MP3 player.

News of Creative's successful application is the second patent blow to
Apple's iPod this month. AppleInsider reported in early August that a
three-year battle by Apple to patent the iPod's menu-based interface had
proved unsuccessful, thanks to a prior filing by inventor and Microsoft
research scientist John Platt.

Platt's application described a system to "generate playlists for a
library collection of media items via selecting a plurality of seed items,
at least one of which is an undesirable seed item."

After Apple's original filing was rejected, the company sought a review of
an amended set of claims to its patent, whose primary creators are listed
as chief executive Steve Jobs and vice president Jeff Robbin. That review
proved unsuccessful.

The Zen patent covers the selection by the user of a least one track in a
portable media player as a user navigates through a hierarchy using three
or more successive screens. Sound familiar?

Creative has been employing the interface since September 2000, when the
Nomad Jukebox first appeared. Apple's iPod debuted in October 2001, with
Apple filing its patent application with the US Patent and Trademark
Office (USPTO) in October 2002.

Unfortunately for Creative, though, it is the late coming iPod that is
ahead in the game. iPod has up to 75 per cent market share, according to
some analysts, compared to just a fraction of the market for Creative.
Creative also saw its recent fourth quarter revenue grow 51 per cent, down
from initial estimates of between 65 per cent and 80 per cent. The company
blamed "slower than expected overall market demand for MP3 players", which
are believed to make up 68 per cent of Creative's revenue.

Apple, arguably, might also be credited with having popularized MP3
players among the music buying public with skilled marketing, advertising
and branding, and an ability to keep fuelling demand through its
relatively limited manufacturing capacity.

On Tuesday, though, Creative was biting back, although it made no mention
of plans to enforce the patent and potentially charge Apple for use
rights. Sim Wong Hoo, Creative's chairman and CEO, let rip in a statement.
"I am very excited that we were awarded the Zen patent, which helps to
protect our invention and recognizes our innovation in portable media
players," Hoo said.

"After a major investment of time and effort by a group of our research
and development engineers, we developed a way for a user to efficiently
and intuitively navigate and select tracks from a significant number of
tracks stored on a player. Before this invention, there was no intuitive
and efficient way to deal with the large number of tracks that could be
stored on a high-capacity player," Hoo added.=AE




--
Michelle Childs -Head of European Affairs
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