iPod: BlackBerry redux?

Will Apple Computer go the way of BlackBerry maker RIM, forking over millions in order to keep selling its profitable iPod? That's the hope of Creative Technology, the Singapore-based company that built a hard-drive MP3 player two years before the introduction of Apple Computer's iPod. Creative, reports the Wall Street Journal, has filed a suit alleging that Apple is violating Creative's patent on the navigation technology used to organize and access music on portable players.

Naturally, Apple is counter suing, claiming Creative has infringed Apple's patents for, among other things, "the creation of icons to organize files on a computer."

The claims and counterclaims strike me as weak. But at least Creative, the instigator of this dispute, isn't a patent troll. It actually designs and builds something. Its problem is it seems to lack the marketing clout of Apple.