As reported by BBC News Online, Creative now own the patent for Mp3 player interface. The patent covers how the files are organized and a navigation system on a player using a hierarchical menus. For example, a sequence of screens that could display artists, then albums and then tracks. Many Mp3 players use this kind of interface, including Creative’s Nomad Jukebox and Apple’s iPod.

This is another strike for Apple, after previously Microsoft beat them on the patent of iPod technology. Moreover, Creative said that the patent applied to its player, as well as some competing products such as the Apple’s iPod and iPod mini. Eventhough Creative was one of the first companies to produce MP3 players but they lost out to Apple which dominates the MP3 player market with their iPod product. Apple’s iPod, announced in October 2001, 13 months after the shipping of Creative’s Nomad Jukebox, is estimated to account for 80% of sales of digital music players which use hard drives to store music.

In its press release, Creative said Apple had filed for a patent for a user interface in a multimedia player in late 2002, but its application had been recently rejected.

[ Via Slashdot ]