Creative Technology, Ltd., feeling the flop sweat creeping up from the back of its neck to the top of its head, apparently decided since it couldn't beat Apple at its own game, it was going to sue the company into submission. Creative asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to halt sales of all iPods and investigate whether Apple infringed on its Singapore-based patent covering Creative Zen multimedia players. Creative says it filed a patent on August 9, 2005, "for its invention of its user interface used by most portable digital media players."
But wait. The iPod had already been on the market for quite a few years by then. WTF? Creative says it owns menus on music players? Weren't there already menus on the iPod and hundreds of other music players by summer, 2005? When, oh when is someone going to do something about the sad and sorry state of copyright patent law in America?
Update: OK, it appears that the patent was granted in 2005, but applied for much earlier, apparently six months before Apple applied for its iPod patent. So here we go, folks...the fun is just starting.
Creative Sues Apple, Claims They Created MP3 Menus [The Consumerist]