[IP] Apple blunder gives Gates iPod royalty
Begin forwarded message:
From: Ari Ollikainen <Ari@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 14, 2005 11:45:47 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] Apple blunder gives Gates iPod royalty
At 10:57 AM -0400 8/14/05, David Farber wrote:
...
Apple blunder gives Gates iPod royalty
By Katherine Griffiths in New York
Published: 14 August 2005
Apple Computer may be forced to pay royalties to Microsoft for
every iPod it sells after it emerged that Bill Gates's software
giant beat Steve Jobs' firm in the race to file a crucial patent
on technology used in the popular portable music players. The
total bill could run into hundreds of millions of dollars.
Although Apple introduced the iPod in November 2001, it did not
file a provisional patent application until July 2002, and a full
application was filed only in October that year.
In the meantime, Microsoft submitted an application in May 2002 to
patent some key elements of music players, including song menu
software.
[...]
In July, the US Patent and Trademark Office rejected Apple's
application, saying some ideas were similar to an earlier
application filed by a Microsoft employee, John Platt.
Hmmm...how does M$ get a patent on elements of technology that
already exists? Does "prior art" no longer count against a
patent application?
--
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