Creative Technology to utilize patent against other makers of portable media players

Further to an earlier post on IPBiz, MacWorld reports that Creative spokesman Phil O'Shaughnessy confirmed the Creative's intentions this week, speaking to Dow Jones. "As the patent covers the hierarchical user interface on portable media players, many manufacturers are using the Zen patent today," he said.

A quote in the MacWorld article confirms the "first to get there" aspect of patent law:

Discussing the company's decision to pursue the patent against other firms, IDC analyst Claudio Checchia stressed the need for an amicable settlement: "I think it has been acknowledged that Creative was there first, so they won the patent - so their rights have been recognised. If they are going to go after other manufacturers, it really depends on what they goal is, and the problem with these lawsuits is that they can be quite expensive."

All the discussion in the software community about NOT reading the patents of others (purposeful ignorance) just promotes economic waste for society as the wheel is rediscovered. Patent law is a race, but it is a race to disclose what one has done.