p2p news / p2pnet: Creative Technology, maker of the Zen portable music player, wants sales of Apple’s made-in-China iPod banned in the US.

The company has filed a US trade complaint and a lawsuit against Apple Computer, says Bloomberg News.

iPods and iPod Nanos sold by Apple are, “specifically configured” to access and display music loaded by the user in ways that violate Creative’s patent, the company says.

The trade complaint, “seeks an order that would block importation of the devices or the sale of any imported devices,” says Bloomberg. “The lawsuit seeks a halt of sales in the U.S. as well as cash compensation for past iPod sales.”

Creative, “claims to have invented the user interface software used by most portable digital media players, including the iPod,” says the IDG News Service.

This invention is protected by a 2005 patent titled “Automatic Hierarchical Categorization of Music by Metadata,” (U.S. Patent No. 6,928,433) Creative said, according to the story.

Also See:
Bloomberg News – Creative Shares Rise on Trade Complaint Against Apple’s IPod, May 16, 2006
IDG News Service – Creative Sues Apple over Patent, May 16, 2006

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 16th, 2006 at 9:34 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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