Patent Claims Over Apple's IPod Escalate

Apple Computer Inc., maker of the iPod music player, has filed a second lawsuit countering patent complaints brought by rival MP3 manufacturer Creative Labs Inc.

Singapore-based Creative, the No. 2 seller of digital music players in the world, last month sued Apple in U.S. District Court in Northern California, claiming patent infringement. At the same time, the company asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to bar Apple from importing portable digital media players that Creative claims infringe on its intellectual property.

Apple filed a counterclaim in U.S. District Court for Western Wisconsin and followed that up June 1 with a claim in U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas. In its latest suit, Apple says Creative infringed a number of its patents relating to the software and systems on its mobile music player.

The Creative-Apple dispute is one among many recent tussles over technology patents.

EchoStar Communications Corp. and TiVo Inc. are locked in a dispute over TiVo's digital video recording patents. The U.S. Supreme Court last month sided with eBay Inc. in part of its patent dispute with MercExchange LLC. And earlier this year, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. settled its patent case with NTP Inc. for $612.5 million.

Creative had sought "amicable solutions" with Apple in recent months, Creative spokesman Phil O'Shaughnessy said in an e-mail. "At no time during these discussions or at any other time did Apple mention to us the patents it raised in its lawsuits. We had fully anticipated and planned for Apple's retaliatory action," he said.

Apple declined to comment.

Creative was one of the first companies to develop a digital music player, which it launched in 2000, more than a year before Apple introduced its iPod and iTunes products. Apple quickly surpassed Creative's Nomad music player in popularity, and it now claims nearly three-quarters of the U.S. market, according to Plano, Tex.-based consulting firm Diffusion Group. Creative's market share is 9 percent.

"It seems like a stretch for Apple to make that claim," given that it followed Creative and others in bringing the iPod to market, said Richard Doherty, research director for the Envisioneering Group, a consultancy. "Apple might be opening a bit of a Pandora's box," because Creative and other companies may have an easier time proving they invented digital music player technology before Apple, he said.

Many companies countersue primarily to try to force out-of-court settlements, which is the outcome in about 90 percent of patent claims, Doherty said.