If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Sue ‘Em – Creative Gets Aggro With Apple

Creative is set to sue Apple for allegedly using Creative’s patented technology in the iPod.

Creative boss Sim Wong Hoo told the BBC he plans to “pursue aggressively” a US patent it owns on a system used to navigate music on digital players. “We will pursue all manufacturers that use the same navigation system,” he said.

Hoo said that the iPod has climbed on the back of Creative’s patented navigation system which covers the way music tracks are organised and navigated on a player, through a hierarchical system using three or more screens.

Creative was one of the first companies to sell a digital music player in 2000 but has since profusively bled market share to Apple’s iPod, which is estimated to account for 80 percent of sales of hard drive-based digital music players.