Creative gets aggressive on the MP3 player patent front

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 9 Dec 2005 at 14:52

The chairman of Creative has vowed to aggressively pursue companies it believes are in breach of its patent on a navigation system for MP3 players.

Sim used the launch of Creative's latest Zen player, the Vision: M, to announce that his company intends to grab itself a slice of the iPod pie.

Creative was awarded the patent, which describes a hierarchical menu system, in August and argued that it had employed such a system for more than a year before the first iPod was unveiled.

'We will pursue all manufacturers that use the same navigation system,' Sim told the BBC. 'This is something we will pursue aggressively. Hopefully this will be friendly, but people have to respect intellectual property.'

Sim denied any resemblance between the new Zen and Apple's players, noting that with additional features such as an FM tuner and built-in microphone, Creative is focussing on technology in what he described as a 'technology marketplace'. He then agreed that this approach has so far not been as well-received as he hoped.