http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/...3411878,00.html "Computer firm Apple may have to pay Microsoft £6($10) for each iPod it sells after a huge licensing lapse. Lawyers at Bill Gates' firm filed a patent for technology behind the hugely successful digital music player two months before Apple. The US Patent Office has ruled that Microsoft has the right to charge competitors a licence fee for each iPod sold. Furious, Apple has said it will appeal the decision but at the moment it looks as though the firm will be paying a high price for the success of its product. The iPod was launched in November 2001 but Apple waited until July 2002 to file for a patent; Microsoft snuck in to license some of the technology the previous May. David Kaefer, Microsoft's director of intellectual property licensing, said it was open to letting other firms patent its innovations. He said: "In general, our policy is to allow others to license our patents so they can use our innovative methods in their products. "Microsoft and Apple have previously licensed their respective patent portfolios to one another and we maintain a good working relationship with Apple." The dispute comes days after Microsoft declared war on the iPod and pledged to come up with a series of rivals. So far, 21 million iPods have been sold worldwide, 18 million in the last year alone."
this is typical bill, and typical steve... bill always had his eye on future market trends, that's what' made him so successful. he likes to win, always. it's not a matter of money to him... it never was, because he never needed it. steve is an uncompromising visionary that is always working towards the next "insanely great" product. to be fair, regardless of how you may feel about bill, he is the reason apple didn't fold years ago (check out who holds a LARGE share in apple). steve, is still running toward the light, regardless of whether it makes the company money or not, not great business sense, but amazing product designs to be sure. and in the end they both ripped off visionaries that surpassed both of them. xerox parc. none of this matters anyway, apple computers will be running intel chipsets by next year or so (it's a done deal), so apple will most likely become what they should have always been. a masterful product company. personally, i've worked with both machines on the same desktop for almost ten years now, i prefer win systems for their level of control-tweakability, and apples hardware for shear bullet-proofness, and amazing design ingenuity. just my .02