Creative to make Apple pay over iPod patent

Sim Wong Hoo, head of MP3 player maker Creative, has indicated the company is expecting to earn royalties from rival Apple.

Sim told the BBC he intends to "pursue aggressively" a US patent the company owns on the navigation of music on MP3 or other audio players. He added that Creative, which makes the Zen range of music players, is already in talks with parties over the patent, awarded this August.

He said: "Hopefully this will be friendly but people have to respect intellectual property," adding that Creative is planning to tackle all music player manufacturers which use the same navigation system that it has patented.

Apple, which dominates the market for MP3 players, has been hit by a number of patent problems this year.

One Hong Kong-based company, which claims it owns patents to DRM used on the iPod, sought 12 per cent of Apple's revenue on the product, while Microsoft managed to foil Apple's attempts to patent elements of its user interface.