Creative will make Apple pay

Creative, maker of MP3 players, has indicated it is expecting to earn royalties from its rival Apple.

Sim Wong Hoo, head of Creative, told the BBC he intends to "pursue aggressively" his company's US patent on the navigation of music on MP3 or other audio players.

He added that Creative, which makes Zen music players, already is in talks with parties over the patent, which was awarded this August.

"Hopefully this will be friendly but people have to respect intellectual property," Sim said.

Creative is planning to tackle all music player manufacturers that use the same navigation system that it has patented, he added.

Apple, which has dominated the market for MP3 players, was hit by a number of patent problems this year.

A Hong Kong-based company, which claims it owns patents to the digital rights management software used on the iPod, sought 12 per cent of Apple's revenue on the product. And Microsoft managed to foil Apple's attempts to patent elements of its user interface.