Apple Strikes Back

Last week I was writing about the fact that Universal Music Group may want its share of iPod's sales, after getting a small fee from Microsoft for every Zune player sold. Today, I have just found out that the tide has turned, and I am amazed. No, Apple won't get money from Universal Music Group, but it will be able to seek royalties on a wide range of digital downloads. The reason? A 10-years old patent that Apple got its hands on recently...

A lawyer from Vermont, Michael Starkweather, stated that its "billion dollar patent" will have effects on the future of the "cell phone, iPod and PDA" industries, as I was able to find out from Apple Insider. Starkweather said the following about its patent: "I believe that, with this patent in hand, Apple will eventually be after every phone company, film maker, computer maker and video producer to pay royalties on every download of not just music but also movies and videos".

The interesting part is that David Contois, the inventor that got his idea patented by Starkweather in 1996, didn't show any interest in patenting it, since he didn't understand its value, as stated by Starkweather.

But...what's this idea all about, after all? Initially, it was about a desktop computer holding songs that had an interface allowing the user to select three songs and play them on an electric grand piano. Starkweather, after realising that downloading movies is closely related to downloading music, split the patent into remote music storage, selection of music to download and playing it on a device.

Later, in June 2005, Apple faced problems with its iTunes software, that was "copying" and "willfully infringing" this patent we're talking about, then the property of Contois Music Technology.

No matter what Contois claimed to get for Apple's violations of his patent, they got it by reaching an out-of-court settlement, and the terms of the deal remain secret as I write this. What should we expect from the future, now that Apple holds the key to this valuable patent? As Starkweather said, Apple can get royalties from a lot of companies in the world, but we should live and see it happening, because at this time all we know for sure is that the creators of the iPod have the royalty bomb available...