Well, first it was Google being taking to the courtroom, and now it’s Apple’s turn. Apple is already dealing with one lawsuit, but Burst.com is now suing Apple Computer, claiming that the computer company has infringed on its patents by creating the iPod, iTunes and Quicktime.

Apple stand is that the patents are not being infringed upon. The lawsuit was put forth four days ago and states that Burst.com “to pay a reasonable royalty for (…) infringing products and services, and also seeks an injunction against further infringement.”

Burst is also making sure that it is represented well in the legal arena. It has hired a plethora of laywers and has even hired a law firm that won them $60 million in a lawsuit against Microsoft. Burst claims that it was Apple that drove them down this route. Burst stated that they “had hoped to avoid litigation and negotiate a reasonable license fee, it is Apple’s own actions that have forced our hand”.

As mentioned previously, the four patents in dispute deal with coverting analog signal into a digital one, transfer of digital audio and video to a hard copy magnetic media, compression of the signal and storage in memory or IC, and the ability to receive information over fiber obtic cable, phone lines, or microwave.

Burst received these patents during a period spanning almost 2 years in late 1990 to late 1992.

These same patents were at the crux of the $60 million dollar settlement with Microsoft. It is thought that if Burst is successful with this lawsuit that they will begin to go after any and all companies that have created digital players and media download services.

That would definitely be something.

[via TGDaily]

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