Apple und Creative einigen sich

Um die akuten Rechtsstreitigkeiten aus dem Weg zu räumen, kamen Apple und Creative zu einer Übereinkunft: Apple zahlt 100 Millionen Dollar Lizenzgebühren an Creative, um das Zen-Patent in allen eigenen Produkten nutzen zu können. Sollte Creative das Patent an weitere Firmen lizenzieren, kann Apple einen Teil der Zahlung zurückerhalten. Creative wiederum tritt Apples 'Made for iPod'-Programm bei und wird noch in diesem Jahr eigene iPod-Accessoires anbieten. "Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "This settlement resolves all of our differences with Creative, including the five lawsuits currently pending between the companies, and removes the uncertainty and distraction of prolonged litigation." “We’re very pleased to have reached an amicable settlement with Apple and to have opened up significant new opportunities for Creative,” said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative. “Apple has built a huge ecosystem for its iPod and with our upcoming participation in the Made for iPod program we are very excited about this new market opportunity for our speaker systems, our just-introduced line of earphones and headphones, and our future family of X-Fi audio enhancement products. We expect that the one-time licensing payment of $100 million will contribute approximately $.85 of earnings per share to our current quarter, ending September 30, 2006."»