Apple after the bell 6/14/06: down a bit as Creative challenges Apple's patents

iPod's IP Issues
The decline in Apple's (AAPL) stock recently may be at least in part due to intellectual property issues with the iPod and other devices. As Microsoft (MSFT) has found out in the past, having the hot hand in tech often bring patent probes from less fortunate companies.

The bad news yesterday for Apple was that the U.S. International Trade Commission will review the claims of Singapore-based Creative Technology Ltd. that it has patents on several of the interfaces used in the Apple device. Creative has a line of Zen products that compete with the Apple portable media player, although not very well based on Zen media player sales.

Apple has filed a suit of its own against Creative, but, if Apple loses the was, it could cost the company plenty.

Apple is also being sued by Burst.com which has a patent on buffering technology used in video servers. Burst has had some success in these actions including a victory over Microsoft which cost the software giant $60 million. The Apple streaming architecture is not so different from the Windows Media Server and Windows Media Player that Microsoft uses.

Apple may become the target of an ever-increasing rash of these claims. The hurt Microsoft by taking management time and legal resource and Apple shareholders should not be surprised it the same holds true again.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@gmail.com. He does now own securities in any of the companies he writes about.

iPod's IP Issues
The decline in Apple's (AAPL) stock recently may be at least in part due to intellectual property issues with the iPod and other devices. As Microsoft (MSFT) has found out in the past, having the hot hand in tech often bring patent probes from less fortunate companies.

The bad news yesterday for Apple was that the U.S. International Trade Commission will review the claims of Singapore-based Creative Technology Ltd. that it has patents on several of the interfaces used in the Apple device. Creative has a line of Zen products that compete with the Apple portable media player, although not very well based on Zen media player sales.

Apple has filed a suit of its own against Creative, but, if Apple loses the was, it could cost the company plenty.

Apple is also being sued by Burst.com which has a patent on buffering technology used in video servers. Burst has had some success in these actions including a victory over Microsoft which cost the software giant $60 million. The Apple streaming architecture is not so different from the Windows Media Server and Windows Media Player that Microsoft uses.

Apple may become the target of an ever-increasing rash of these claims. The hurt Microsoft by taking management time and legal resource and Apple shareholders should not be surprised it the same holds true again.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@gmail.com. He does now own securities in any of the companies he writes about.