'Zen Patent' Granted for Invention of its User Interface for Portable Media
Players Including Many of Creative's Zen and NOMAD Jukebox MP3 Players and
Found in Some Competing Players Such as the Apple iPod and iPod mini
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif., Aug. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Creative
Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF), a worldwide leader in digital entertainment
products, today announced that it has been awarded U.S. Patent 6,928,433,
which Creative is referring to as the "Zen(TM) Patent." The Zen Patent was
awarded to Creative for its invention of the user interface for portable media
players, including many of the Creative Zen and NOMAD(R) Jukebox MP3 players,
and found in some competing players, such as the Apple iPod and iPod mini. The
Zen Patent covers the user interface that enables users of portable media
players to efficiently and intuitively navigate among and select tracks on the
players. Creative applied for the Zen Patent on January 5, 2001 and it was
awarded on August 9, 2005.
Creative's invention for the user interface for portable media players
enables selection of at least one track in a portable media player as a user
sequentially navigates through a hierarchy using three or more successive
screens on the display of the player. One example would be the sequence of
screens that could display artists, then albums, and then tracks. When the
user selects an artist, the player displays a list of albums for that artist.
Selection of one of the listed albums then displays a list of tracks on the
album.
"The user interface covered by the Zen Patent was invented by Creative
research and development engineers in our Advanced Technology Center in Scotts
Valley, California," said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative. "The
first portable media player based upon the user interface covered in our Zen
Patent was our NOMAD Jukebox MP3 player. We shipped the NOMAD Jukebox to U.S.
retail customers in September of 2000, and by November of 2000, it was already
ranked as the top revenue-generating product in the U.S. in the digital audio
player category, according to PC Data. By January of 2001, we announced that
we had already sold 100,000 NOMAD Jukeboxes. The Apple iPod was only announced
in October 2001, 13 months after we had been shipping the NOMAD Jukebox based
upon the user interface covered by our Zen Patent."
"I am very excited that we were awarded the Zen Patent, which helps to
protect our invention and recognizes our innovation in portable media
players," said Sim. "After a major investment of time and effort by a group of
our research and development engineers, we developed a way for a user to
efficiently and intuitively navigate and select tracks from a significant
number of tracks stored on a player. Before this invention, there was no
intuitive and efficient way to deal with the large number of tracks that could
be stored on a high-capacity player."
"There has been press coverage recently regarding the rejection of Apple's
patent application, published as Pub. No. U.S. 2004/0055446 for a user
interface in a multimedia player. This Apple patent application was filed on
October 28, 2002. A related provisional application was filed by Apple on July
30, 2002, eighteen months after our filing date for the Zen Patent and over
twenty months after our NOMAD Jukebox based upon our user interface was on the
market," added Sim.
"We continue to innovate in digital media players with the introduction of
the Zen Vision, which adds high-quality video playback to its MP3 music and
digital photo viewing features. The Zen Vision, as well as the upcoming Zen
Micro Photo with a color OLED screen and many more new products, will be based
upon the user interface covered by the Zen Patent," noted Sim.
The full text and images of the Zen Patent, U.S. 6,928,433 are available
at http://www.uspto.gov by doing a patent number search under issued patents.
About Creative
Creative is a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for PC
users. Famous for its Sound Blaster(R) sound cards and for launching the
multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment on the PC
platform with products like its highly acclaimed MuVo(R) and Zen portable
audio players. Creative's innovative hardware, proprietary technology,
applications and services leverage the Internet, enabling consumers to
experience high-quality digital entertainment -- anytime, anywhere.
This announcement refers to products and pricing sold in the United States
of America. Sound Blaster, MuVo and Zen are trademarks of Creative Technology
Ltd. in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand and product
names are trademarks of their respective holder and are hereby recognized as
such.
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause
Creative's actual results to differ materially. Such risks and uncertainties
include: Creative's ability to timely develop new products that gain market
acceptance and to manage frequent product transitions; competitive pressures
in the marketplace; exposure to excess and obsolete inventory; accelerated
declines in the average selling prices of Creative's products; Creative's
ability to successfully integrate acquisitions; potential fluctuations in
quarterly results due to the seasonality of Creative's business and the
difficulty of projecting such fluctuations; possible disruption in commercial
activities caused by factors outside of Creative's control, such as terrorism,
armed conflict and labor disputes; a reduction in demand for computer systems,
peripherals and related consumer products as a result of poor economic
conditions, social and political turmoil; major health concerns; the
proliferation of sound functionality in new products from competitors at the
application software, chip and operating system levels; the deterioration of
global equity markets; Creative's reliance on sole sources for many of its
chips and other key components; component shortages which may impact
Creative's ability to meet customer demand; Creative's ability to protect,
enforce or exploit its proprietary rights; a reduction or cancellation of
sales orders for Creative products; Creative's ability to successfully manage
its expanding operations; the vulnerability of certain markets to current and
future currency fluctuations; the effects of restricted fuel availability and
rising costs of fuel; fluctuations in the value and liquidity of Creative's
investee companies; and the potential decrease in trading volume and value of
Creative's Ordinary Shares as a result of the Flow Back Restriction that
commenced on June 1, 2003 and Creative's previous plan and any future plans to
delist from NASDAQ and to eliminate its U.S. reporting obligations. For
further information regarding the risks and uncertainties associated with
Creative's business, please refer to its filings with the SEC, including its
Form 20-F for fiscal 2004 filed with the SEC. Creative undertakes no
obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to
actual results or changes in Creative's expectations.
SOURCE Creative Technology Ltd.
 back to top
Related links:
http://www.creative.com
CONTACT:
USA, Phil O'Shaughnessy, +1-408-546-6773, or
poshaughnessy@creative.com, or Asia, Wynne Leong, +65-6895-4120,
or wleong@ctl.creative.com, both of Creative Technology Ltd.
|
