The funny thing here is that MP3-plyers have been around for years longer
than either of these companies patent application.
Mine is over 3 years old and wasn't made by either of these companies.
Just one more example of how intellectual property laws - these days - are
being used by the unscrupulous to block innovation and attempt monopolise
new technologies they didn't actually invent.
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http://www.informationweek.com/story...01205&tid=5978
Did Microsoft Invent The iPod? Aug. 12, 2005
According to the U.S. Patent Office, patent applications that cover much of
the technology associated with the iPod were submitted by Microsoft.
If you think Apple Computer's Steve Jobs invented the technology behind the
Apple iPod, don't bet your 60GB, 15,000-song model on it.
According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, patent applications that
cover much of the technology associated with the iPod were submitted by
Microsoft, which has been on a patents tear recently filing thousands of
patents.
If the patents hold up on appeal, Apple could be accountable for royalties
on the spectacularly successful iPod. Jobs and others associated with Apple
filed for patents covering the technology in October, 2002, but that
application was rejected by the patent office last month. AppleInsider.com
reported the rejection this week.
Apple won't take the matter lying down. "Apple invented and publicly
released the iPod interface before the Microsoft patent application cited
by the (patent) examiner was filed," said an Apple spokesperson in a
statement. Apple also noted that the firm has received other patents for
technology relating to the iPod and in addition has other patents pending
on the iPod.
The documents in the Patent Office do not mention the iPod by name. The
documents describe a "portable, pocked-sized multimedia asset player" that
can manipulate MP3 music files.
Microsoft's claim appears to center on the work of John C. Platt, a senior
researcher in the Knowledge Tools Group at Microsoft Research. According to
media reports, on behalf of Microsoft, Platt applied for the patent in May
of 2002 some five months before the Apple filing. Platt's application was
rejected in December 2004, but he amended it in April of this year and
Microsoft's pending patent was subsequently approved.
According to a citation on "Platt's home page, he and other colleagues at
Microsoft developed a paper in the 2001-2002 timeframe discussing AutoDJ,
"a system for automatically generating music playlists based on one or more
seed songs selected by a user."
Apple's iPod dominates the MP3 player market. The NPD Group has reported
that Apple has shipped nearly 22 million iPods. Predictions that Apple's
strength in the MP3 market would slip haven't borne out, and Apple accounts
for about 75 percent of MP3 players sold in the U.S.
So far, Microsoft hasn't been able to dent the Apple iPod dominance,
although the software giant has said it is working on music playing devices
that it plans to introduce later this year.
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