Apple Pays $100 Million to Settle Patent Dispute With Creative

Probably more money than Creative ever made selling their players, and a relative drop in the bucket on Apple’s part — even if they’d continued to fight it, they would have spent tens of millions in legal fees, and they would have risked a fiasco like what happened to BlackBerry maker RIM.

“Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “This settlement resolves all of our differences with Creative, including the five lawsuits currently pending between the companies, and removes the uncertainty and distraction of prolonged litigation.”

I love that dig from Jobs in the first sentence. He couldn’t even let the PR go out without making it clear that he hates giving them a nickel for that patent.

★ Thursday, 24 August 2006