Would Apple have to Pay Microsoft for iPod?

Could this end up being one of the most hilarious development in IT for a while?

It seems that Apple is being made to sweat over its iPod technology after it emerged late last week that its lazy lawyers took so long to patent its phenomenally successful player that Microsoft beat them to it. The fallout could theoretically mean Apple has to pay up to $10 per device to (Dark Lord) Microsoft and with over 10 million of them sold to date… well, that would surely affect their bottomline.

Microsoft case is likely fall down because although it got first shot in the patent office in May 2002 (beating Apple by two months), Apple has had its products on the market since November 2001.

Competing firm normally cannot claim the rights to something that was on the market before it filed patents.

That said, exactly how European courts will interpret this will probably depend largely on who has the most expensively assembled legal team.

Based on this patent filing Microsoft appears poised to enter this market.

Source: Trusted Reviews