
We thought the matter had been resolved earlier today when
our
President credited the
government with developing the technology that led to the
iPod-filled world we live in today, but now another claimant has come
forward in an attempt to recoup his "rightful share" of a billion dollar DAP market he may have helped
create. British inventor and furniture shop manager Kane Kramer is currently consulting lawyers to see what, if any,
recourse he has to enforce patents he filed in 1981 for an iPod-like device but which he subsequently lost control of
due to
reported boardroom
coup. The patents, which describe a three-and-a-half-minute-capacity digital audio player with a screen and
central navigation controls, eventually became part of the public domain after Kramer's company dissolved and he was
unable to raise the money required for renewing them across 120 countries. Kramer, who is most definitely aware of the
riches he lost out on, says that the runaway success of iPods specifically and DAPs in general surely makes him
"the world's biggest failure."