While Microsoft's digital media boss Erik Huggers recently told the press that MP3 player makers like Phillips, Creative and Samsung are busy developing new models which will be "iPod killers", his colleagues in legal are working on a contingency plan should the Apple player continue to dominate - by using patent law to force their rivals to pay them a fee for the right to sell their own technology. No, really, it's true.
It's all to do with the speed with which the two competing IT firms applied for a US patent for the software functionality that powers the iPod. Bill Gates' legal team submitted such a patent application in May 2002, seven months after Apple launched their music player, but five months before Steve Jobs' company made a similar patent application.
Although Microsoft's first application was initially rejected, the Patent Office indicated it would accept a revised application on 27 Jun, two weeks before Apple's original application was rejected on 13 Jul. Although Jobs will now appeal any decision to hand Microsoft an iPod patent, there is a real chance he will fail in that attempt, and Apple will end up having to pay their rivals a royalty on every iPod sold.
This story has come to light now following a report on AppleInsider.com, which was taken up and confirmed by Bloomberg. They spoke to Apple who made little comment on Microsoft's attempts to use patent laws to gain ground in the digital music market, accept to say: "Apple invented and publicly released the iPod interface before the Microsoft patent application cited by the examiner was filed".