CREATIVE AWARDED U.S. PATENT ON ITS INVENTION OF USER INTERFACE FOR PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYERS
“Zen Patent” Granted for Invention of its User Interface for Portable Media Players Including Many of Creative’s Zen and NOMAD Jukebox MP3 Players and Found in Some Competing Players Such as the Apple iPod and iPod mini
Singapore – August 30, 2005 – Creative Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: CREAF), a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products, today announced that it has been awarded U.S. Patent 6,928,433, which Creative is referring to as the “Zen™ Patent.” The Zen Patent was awarded to Creative for its invention of the user interface for portable media players, including many of the Creative Zen and NOMAD® Jukebox MP3 players, and found in some competing players, such as the Apple iPod and iPod mini. The Zen Patent covers the user interface that enables users of portable media players to efficiently and intuitively navigate among and select tracks on the players. Creative applied for the Zen Patent on January 5, 2001 and it was awarded on August 9, 2005.
Creative’s invention for the user interface for portable media players enables selection of at least one track in a portable media player as a user sequentially navigates through a hierarchy using three or more successive screens on the display of the player. One example would be the sequence of screens that could display artists, then albums, and then tracks. When the user selects an artist, the player displays a list of albums for that artist. Selection of one of the listed albums then displays a list of tracks on the album.
“The user interface covered by the Zen Patent was invented by Creative research and development engineers in our Advanced Technology Center in Scotts Valley, California,” said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative. “The first portable media player based upon the user interface covered in our Zen Patent was our NOMAD Jukebox MP3 player. We shipped the NOMAD Jukebox to U.S. retail customers in September of 2000, and by November of 2000, it was already ranked as the top revenue-generating product in the U.S. in the digital audio player category, according to PC Data. By January of 2001, we announced that we had already sold 100,000 NOMAD Jukeboxes. 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.”
“I am very excited that we were awarded the Zen Patent, which helps to protect our invention and recognizes our innovation in portable media players,” said Sim. “After a major investment of time and effort by a group of our research and development engineers, we developed a way for a user to efficiently and intuitively navigate and select tracks from a significant number of tracks stored on a player. Before this invention, there was no intuitive and efficient way to deal with the large number of tracks that could be stored on a highcapacity player.”
“There has been press coverage recently regarding the rejection of Apple’s patent application, published as Pub. No. U.S. 2004/0055446 for a user interface in a multimedia player. This Apple patent application was filed on October 28, 2002. A related provisional application was filed by Apple on July 30, 2002, eighteen months after our filing date for the Zen Patent and over twenty months after our NOMAD Jukebox based upon our user interface was on the market,” added Sim.
“We continue to innovate in digital media players with the introduction of the Zen Vision, which adds high-quality video playback to its MP3 music and digital photo viewing features. The Zen Vision, as well as the upcoming Zen Micro Photo with a color OLED screen and many more new products, will be based upon the user interface covered by the Zen Patent,” noted Sim.
The full text and images of the Zen Patent, U.S. 6,928,433 are available at www.uspto.gov by doing a patent number search under issued patents.
Comments - Wow! Creative going to sue Apple for royalties soon ? :D
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I think so too. Furthermore, Microsoft has recently awarded a patent too, which mean that Apple is facing a tough fight against two front.
LOS ANGELES, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Creative Technology (CREA.SI: Quote, Profile, Research) (CREAF.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , a maker of portable music players, on Tuesday said it was awarded a U.S. patent that applied to Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iPod and other rivals.
Creative said it was considering its alternatives, but did not say whether it would file a patent suit, which is typically an expensive process, seek licensing agreements or even if it had talked with Apple.
Apple had no immediate comment.
Analyst Phil Leigh of Inside Digital said he considered the patent award a significant development for both companies.
"We consider it a dead certainty that Creative will go after Apple for royalties or some other type of compensation for what Creative will assert is infringement of its patents, currently and in the past," Leigh said.
But Leigh said it was highly probable that Creative will have a hard time getting its "bite" out of Apple because the applicability of patents can be difficult to prove.
Creative's shares rose 19 cents or 2.5 percent to close at $7.94 on Nasdaq on Tuesday, while Apple's shares rose 73 cents or 1.6 percent to $46.57.
Creative said the patent covers the way music tracks are selected on a device using a hierarchy of three or more successive screens. On the iPod, for instance, users can scroll from artists to albums to songs.
Creative ranks far behind Apple in the market. Apple dominates over 70 percent of sales for music players that use hard drives to store music.
"We're pleased about the patent and the protection it provides us. We're evaluating all the alternatives," Craig McHugh, president of Creative Labs, the firm's U.S. unit, told reporters on a conference call.
Creative said it had applied for the patent -- dubbed the Zen patent after its Zen player -- on Jan. 5, 2001, and it was awarded on Aug. 9, 2005.
"The first portable media player based upon the user interface covered in our Zen Patent was our NOMAD Jukebox MP3 player," Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative, said in a statement. He said Creative had shipped the NOMAD Jukebox to U.S. retail customers in September 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," he said.
The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office recently rejected a request filed by Apple in October 2002 to patent some of the device's technology. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) had filed a similar application in May 2002.
Microsoft had no immediate comment, although Creative's McHugh said Microsoft's patent application covers different technology from that covered in its patent application
Comment: Well this Zen Patent will applied to Apple IPOD as well. This means that Creative can fight a patent suit with Apple. It will be a very costly approach, it would be good for Creative to have royalties instead . As patent suit will took a long time to settle. If Apple is willingly to pay royalties, it would boost Creative earning and there will less price war now as the margin for Apple will be affected as well. Of course, Apple can come out with a new type of interface instead that bypass the patent.
Singapore's Creative says Japan shipments had virus
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Creative Technology Ltd. said some of its MP3 player shipments to Japan contained a virus worm and it was recalling affected products from stores.
Singapore-based Creative (CREA.SI)(Nasdaq:CREAF - news), which makes Nomad and Zen brand players, said in a statement late Thursday on its Japanese Web site that some of its Zen Neeon devices, which started shipping in late June, contained a "low-risk worm."
The company estimates that fewer than 50 units were affected, out of 2,900 devices that had been shipped to Japan since September 1. "The system with the problem has been disposed of and the problem has been fixed. We verify that Creative Zen Neeon shipments going forward will not have this problem," the company said.
Creative shares fell 2.2 percent to S$13.60 on Friday. The stock has slumped about 24 percent over the last 12 months.
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