Ahh, the spat between two prior partners.  It was getting hard there to keep track of all the lawsuits flying between Creative and Apple.  Now they've settled out of court.  Is this an admission by Apple that they copied stole liberated Creative's IP?  It's unclear.  But Creative's Soon-Kon Kim is now $100M richer and planning to make iPod accessories.

Steve says:

"Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "This settlement resolves all of our differences with Creative, including the five lawsuits currently pending between the companies, and removes the uncertainty and distraction of prolonged litigation."

"Very fortunate"?  An odd way of acknowledging Creative owns the intellectual property.  Is sense much gnashing of teeth and PR jockeying over this exact quote.   I wonder if some designer/engineer just got fired for stiffing the company with the $100M tab for failing to rush out and patent everything they were working on with Creative.