It's been a rough couple of months for Apple Computer: lawsuits, anti-competitive accusations abroad, earnings restatements--now its on-fire lithium-ion batteries. But on Wednesday, the PC and mobile
device maker got one monkey off its back, settling out of court with Creative Technology, a Singapore-based rival that was seeking to halt U.S. sales of its iPod digital media player. Creative filed a
complaint against Apple in May, accusing it of "willful infringement" of a patent related to the user-interface on music players. Apple later filed a counter-suit, accusing Creative of similar things.
Obviously, Apple lost that argument; company CEO Steve Jobs said the settlement puts to rest five outstanding lawsuits between the two companies, and will enable Apple to use Creative's patent, which
was filed in 2001 before the iPod music player came out. For Creative, whose Zen music player is miles behind the iPod, the settlement allows the company to create its own line of iPod accessories.
Last year, iPods accounted for 40 percent of Apple's revenue. The device commands about 75 percent of the portable player market.
Read the whole story at Financial Times »
