Creative sues Apple over iPod interface

Creative, the company behind products like the Zen Vision digital media player is suing Apple over the iPod’s interface, saying that it infringes on a patent that they hold.

The patent reads, in part:
A method of selecting at least one track from a plurality of tracks stored in a computer-readable medium of a portable media player configured to present sequentially a first, second, and third display screen on the display of the media player, the plurality of tracks accessed according to a hierarchy, the hierarchy having a plurality of categories, subcategories, and items respectively in a first, second, and third level of the hierarchy.

After wading through the patentese, you’ll see that Creative apparently patented the concept of organizing music by category. I’m surprised they didn’t go whole-hog and just patent alphabetical order while they were at it. Seriously, though, is the idea of sorting music by artist, album, and title really something that deserves a patent?

(From Ars Technica)

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Creative sues Apple over iPod interface

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