Creative preps for more Zen patent lawsuits to "protect" itself

Fresh off their victory in getting Apple to cough up a hundred million dollars for potential infringement on their Zen patent (which outlines hierarchical menu systems for portable media devices), it should come as no surprise that Creative's legal team is mounting up, and the company has issued a statement that they intend to pursue cases of the patent's infringement elsewhere. The President of Creative Labs Inc., Craig McHugh, told DowJones, "There many MP3 player makers in the US market that are currently using the Zen technology, and there are also several cellphones that are music-enabled that are using the Zen patent," following up with, "We are also ready to take the necessary steps to protect our intellectual property." Yeah, we're sure they are; but as Steve said himself, "Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent..." It's obvious Creative is going to leverage this newfound empowerment over the portable media player device industry to the best of their legal abilities, so we can only hope that something as ridiculous as the Zen patent will eventually be overturned by the USPTO due to prior art, or be rejected because as an invention it's a little far-reaching to be fairly exercised.