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Last week the US Patent and Trademark Office ruled Apple's patent application invalid because a similar claim had already been registered by one John Platt, who, it subsequently emerged, is an employee of Microsoft.

Threatened with the possibility that it might have to pay iPod royalties to its greatest rival, Apple said it will appeal the USPTO decision.

'Apple invented and publicly released the iPod interface before the Microsoft patent application was filed,' a company statement reads.

Under US law, you cannot patent something than someone else has already made. In theory this invalidates Platt's patent. Nonetheless the patent will not pass to Apple: you cannot patent your own invention once you have started selling it, only before. It seems entirely possible that no-one will end up with the rights to an iPod-style interface.