Apple Receives iTunes Interface Patent

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5210733.html?tag=nefd.top' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5210733.html?tag=nefd.top</a><br /><br /></div>"Apple Computer has won a patent for the interface of its iTunes music software, underscoring the growing importance of the multimedia business for the company. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Apple a patent for its media player software interface on May 4, along with several other features of the company's high-profile products. Other parts of the iTunes software, including the ability to stream songs over a network to another copy of the program, had been the subject of earlier patents."<br /><br />This should be very interesting as several MP3 players on the market today, including Dell's Digital Jukebox, sport user interfaces that are similar to the iPod. A deluge of lawsuits or cease and desist orders may be the "next big thing" from Apple.

[James Fee]

I should have become a patent lawyer... :roll:

[OSUKid7]

Shouldn't the title be "Apple Receives iTunes Interface Patent" instead of iPod Interface Patent? This has nothing to do with the actual iPod music player AFAIK.

[Suhit Gupta]

This is obviously no surprise :), again, shocked it did happen a long time ago.

Suhit

[Suhit Gupta]

Shouldn't the title be "Apple Receives iTunes Interface Patent" instead of iPod Interface Patent? This has nothing to do with the actual iPod music player AFAIK.
Fixed, thanks for pointing it out.

Suhit

[Kent Pribbernow]

If I'm not mistaken, there are couple open source audio apps that look like iTunes rip-offs. Should be interesting to see how Apple plans to wage an attack against a community rather than a single company.