Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Creative To Defend Interface Patent Rights

Posted by Zonk on from the bum-bum-bummmmm dept.

wild_berry writes "At the London Lauch of their new 'Zen Vision: M' portable media player, Creative Labs boss Sim Wong Hoo told the BBC that he plans to defend their August 2005 patent for interfaces in portable music devices." From the article: "Creative chairman Sim Wong Hoo told the BBC News website that the company was already talking to various parties about the patent but refused to be drawn on specifics. 'We will pursue all manufacturers that use the same navigation system,' said Mr Sim. 'This is something we will pursue aggressively. Hopefully this will be friendly, but people have to respect intellectual property.'"

6 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"Creative" seems to be a misnomer... by CoderBob · · Score: 5, Informative

    I haven't seen the actual patent, and don't have time to look it up at the moment, but the original Nomad used a series of nested menus for navigation- and was released well before the iPod.

  2. Re:"Creative" seems to be a misnomer... by The+Warlock · · Score: 5, Informative

    I do believe that the Creative Nomad was released well before the iPod. That said, hierarchial menus date back to, well, to very far back. Certainly before Creative was ever incorporated.

    --
    I've upped my standards, so up yours.
  3. Re:iPod prior art? by stunt_penguin · · Score: 5, Informative

    the iPod is a relative newcomer to the MP3 market. Creative were making hard disk mp3 players long before Apple ever dreamed of them. They were practially the only players on the market in 1999-2000, and they used the same type of heirarchial naviation that the iPod uses.

    That's not to say that Creative have a legal case they should be able to press in respect to the patent (for heirarchial display of files by category) as the patent is so f**king obvious that is should never have been granted.

    --
    When the posters fear their moderators, there is tyranny; when the moderators fears the posters, there is liberty.
  4. Re:"Creative" seems to be a misnomer... by freshman_a · · Score: 4, Informative


    1. Blatantly rip off iPod.

    uh, no...

    the Nomad Jukebox was shipping about a year before the iPod was announced. Creative filed for the patent in January of 2001.

    i hate this patent BS as much as the next guy, but Creative did not rip off the iPod.

    --
    Slackware
  5. Re:iPod prior art? by im_mac · · Score: 4, Informative

    Creative's patent was applied for in 2001, before the iPod's debut later that same year. Creative says they used that system in earlier mp3 players as well. So no, there is no prior art from Apple.

  6. Re:"Creative" seems to be a misnomer... by i_should_be_working · · Score: 4, Informative

    No. When the Nomad was only 6GB the ipod didn't exist. When the ipod did exist, at only 5GB, there were already 20GB players from several companies.