It’s Apple vs. Microsoft over iPod Patent
(Page 1 of 4 )
The wrangling over the patent for the iPod user interface between Microsoft and Apple attracted a lot of attention recently. What was Apple thinking, waiting an entire year after its product hit the market to file the patent?! The full perspective of the situation is a bit more complicated.
History records that Alexander Graham Bell beat a rival inventor to the patent office by mere hours. The patent in question was the telephone, of course, and we all know where that went. Well, Microsoft beat Apple to the patent office for an iPod-related patent by a whole five months. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the US Patent and Trademark Office recently rejected Apple’s patent, in a decision that must have left Microsoft executives rubbing their hands with glee and Apple executives gnashing their teeth. Goodness, were the folks over at Apple too busy listening to music on their iPods to get on the ball about filing that patent?
If that were truly what was going on, Steve Jobs wouldn’t be sleeping at night. Apple’s iPod is too important to the current and future viability of the company to receive cavalier treatment. The figures speak for themselves. Since the debut of the now-ubiquitous digital music player in October 2001, Apple has already shipped about 21 million iPods – practically enough to corner the market, considering that the number amounts to 75 percent of all MP3 players sold in the United States. Of course, Apple sells the iPod in plenty of other places, as its recent success with its iTunes store in Japan illustrated. Speaking of iTunes, the digital music player and the online music store together accounted for more than a third of Apple’s revenue last quarter.
So what is actually happening here? The people who work for Apple are not flakes. The patent filing process has become somewhat more convoluted since Bell’s time, however, and the iPod itself is more complicated than the device into which Bell spoke the immortal words “Come here, Watson, I want you.” Indeed, an Apple spokesperson made this point clear in a statement revealing that the company “has received many patents for inventions related to the iPod, and has many more patents pending…The U.S. patent process is often a lengthy one, involving much back and forth with the U.S. patent office. Apple will continue to pursue this patent application, as well as the many others covering iPod innovations.”
Next: Path of a Patent >>
More Opinions Articles
More By Terri Wells
/ 8 
