What I love about patent law , you could fit on an 8.5 - by-11 - inch flat solid of newspaper and still have about 8 - by-10 - column inch worth of doodle space leave over . In fact , you ’ll find “ letters patent law ” deposit between the entries for “ Parcheesi , rule of ” and “ Pawnee City , Nebraska ” in book 16 ofThings Phil make out Very Little About . Which is a rhythm - about elbow room of tell that , for all I have a go at it , Creative Technology holds an iron - cloak patent for “ reflex hierarchical categorization of music by metadata ” that does cover the iPod as thecompany claims , and that the sight of Creative employee tote Brobdingnagian sacks of royalty money out of One Infinite Loop will soon become a familiar one in Cupertino .
But I doubt it . Because while I do n’t have intercourse much about patent of invention law , I do know a little bit about human behavior . And the timing and tenor of Creative ’s self - described “ celebration ” Tuesday suggests that this late ontogeny is more sizzle than steak .
First , the affair of timing : Creative acknowledge during Tuesday ’s press group discussion that it received this particular patent of invention from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office about a month ago . So why sit down on the tidings for that long , if it ’s such a full-grown deal ? Why , because the press has been so focused on the on-going iPod patent dispute between Apple and Microsoft , enounce Creative Labs president Craig McHugh , spurring his company to take action .
Well , OK . But the Apple - Microsoft kerfuffle has been percolate for more than two weeks now . It take that foresightful for originative to typecast up a press release that show “ ’ Fraid not , fellas ? ” No , I ’m guessing that something else motivated Creative to get chatty about its letters patent , something like — and I ’m just saliva - balling here — the company ’s patronizing - rival announcing an iPod - interrelate pressing event the daylight before . In fact , this is so obviously a endeavour to steal some of Apple ’s thunder , I ’m a trivial bit surprised originative executives did n’t just await another week and show up during Steve Jobs ’ presentation next Wednesday , waving a copy of the letters patent over their school principal and demand that the Apple CEO pay up up on the situation .
Whoops — probably just planted the approximation in their heads .
Creative has plenty of motivation for getting the medium to jabber about music - player patent of invention . Up until this previous development , the bulk of the press coverage about Creative focused onhow miserably the company was doing . In its just completed fiscal twelvemonth , Creative saw its profits tumble to less than $ 1 million after a $ 134 million profit in financial 2004 . And that was after Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo declared “ warfare ” on the iPod back in November . Apple currently claims a 70 percent share of the music player market compare to about 10 percent for Creative , direct one to conclude that if the colonists had waged the Revolutionary War with the same accomplishment that Sim Wong Hoo has expose in his merchandising warfare against the iPod , I ’d be pausing right now to toast the health of my sovereign queen mole rat . At any rate , there ’s no best scheme for draw attention aside from your own struggles than by suggest that Apple might have operate into a spot of legal difficulty and sitting back as the Apple - is - doomed detail of the military press corps respond the manner Pavlov ’s doggy reacts to ringing Bell .
Creative also made some queer selection in wording when discussing the leg of its patent . weigh on whether his company plans to litigate Apple , McHugh would only say that Creative will “ go along to explore all the alternatives available to us”—which seems like a odd agency to phrase things if your patent of invention is as solid as the ship’s company seems to cerebrate it is . perchance “ After make off with as much loot as they can carry , our onslaught attorney plan to undulate through Steve Jobs ’s couch cushion for loose change ” would come off as a bit cocky , but it ’s certainly a stronger , more convinced wording than “ we ’re keeping our options open . ” What do those option let in , exactly ? A hearty shake for a job well done ? A stern word of advice to go and blunder no more ? A request for Apple to swim it a couple of bucks until the next payday ? Help me out , Creative .
Of course , it remains to be see what emerge from this latest iPod patent scuffle hoe . It could turn out that Creative has a legitimate boeuf , that there ’s some substance to its call . mightily now , however , it looks like little more than a shameless packaging grab from a company comfortably at making newspaper headline than it is at make MP3 players .
