iPod patents also go to Creative

Well, I'll be hornswaggled!...

Not only did Apple see its patent application for the iPod interface get awarded to Micro$oft instead, the decision causing all sorts of debates, but now Playlist reports that Creative claims music player patent covers iPod, too!

Creative Technology Ltd. on Tuesday announced that it has been awarded U.S. Patent 6,928,433, which it’s calling the “Zen Patent” for short. The Zen Patent describes how files on a digital music player are organized, and covers not only its own Zen and Nomad jukeboxes, but also Apple’s iPod and iPod mini, according to a statement release by the company.

The Zen Patent is summarized as “automatic hierarchical categorization of music by metadata.” Creative said the patent covers the ability for a digital music player to display music using artist, album and track menus — the way that not only Creative’s music players work, but also Apple’s.

Creative chairman and CEO Sim Wong Hoo, explained that Creative’s Nomad Jukebox was on store shelves in September 2000, 13 months before Apple’s ever saw the light of day, he said.

“Before this invention, there was no intuitive and efficient way to deal with the large number of tracks that could be stored on a high-capacity player,” Sim said.

Creative’s patent news is the latest salvo in Sim Wong Hoo’s self-described marketing “war” against the iPod, which he first described in November, 2004. ...

OMG. His Steveness is gonna have a fit... :-o