Creative Technology was awarded a patent for inventing the user interface for portable media players. The patent has been named the "Zen Patent" by Creative.
The user interface that the patent refers to is the ability to navigate through and select tracks on players such as Apple's iPod and iPod mini as well as Creative's own Zen and Nomad jukebox MP3 players.
The company applied for the patent all the way back at the beginning of 2001, and was just awarded with it on August 9 of this year.
"The first portable media player based upon the user interface covered in our Zen Patent was our NOMAD Jukebox MP3 player," said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative.
"We shipped the NOMAD Jukebox to U.S. retail customers in September of 2000, and by November of 2000...the Apple iPod was only announced in October 2001, 13 months after we had been shipping the NOMAD Jukebox based upon the user interface covered by our Zen Patent," Sim added.
This news of course means that Apple may soon be facing legal trouble over this patent. It will be interesting to see what happens with that.
Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.
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