Apple Is Accused of Violating Software Patent

outz writes "And it begins... Creative Technology, a maker of portable music players, has accused Apple Computer of violating a newly granted software patent covering the way users navigate music selections." From the NYT article: "Creative Technology, which is based in Singapore and has United States operations in Milpitas, Calif., said it would consider every option available to defend the patent, including possible legal action. Apple declined to comment on the patent. The patent, which the company calls the Zen Patent, covers Creative's interface for portable players, which allows users to select a song, album or track by navigating a succession of menus. The patent office awarded the patent on Aug. 9." We reported on the granting of the patent a few days ago.

Comments

Evil Plan

[kaellinn18]

I have a patent pending regarding complaining about idiotic patents online. When this baby passes, you're all going to be screwed! Muahahaha.

Re:Bad Patent...

[mopslik]

What other ways are you going to navigate your music library if not by artist, album, or genre?

I organize my music collection based on the number of vowels in the second word of the group's name. If there is only one word, I take the total number of letters in the word (n) and add a number produced by the formula floor((n mod 3)/(n+1))+1. If the group's name is composed entirely of numbers, simple addition of each digit is performed -- if the result is 2 or more digits, the process is repeated until it's down to 1. Prince has his own unique category.

Really, I thought everyone did it this way.

If this is a battle of lawyers

[noewun]

Then Creative should give up, now, while there's still something left. I know for a fact that Steve keeps his litigators locked in a barren back room and only feeds them every third day. Makes 'em mean. . .

Re:What will Gandhi Say?

[StarvingSE]

Whats up with all the Gandhi stuff lately?? Has /. finally outsourced commenting on articles to India???

Re:What will Gandhi Say?

[RomanySaad]

I think Jesus held prior art to that idea long before Ghandi... Too bad he did not patent it.

Re:What will Gandhi Say? - get the quotee right

[stuuf]

... but Jesus didn't patent it when he said it.