Apple, Samsung, Sandisk sued over MP3

Texas MP3 Technologies claims the companies infringed its patent covering 'an MPEG portable sound reproducing system'
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
February 26, 2007

The suit, which came to light over the weekend, was filed on Feb. 16 in Marshall, Texas. The eastern Texas city is fast becoming one of the leading locations of patent infringement lawsuits in the U.S. thanks to speedy trials and juries that more often than not find in favor of the plaintiff.

In the complaint Texas MP3 Technologies alleges infringement on U.S. patent 7,065,417, which was awarded in June 2006 to multimedia chip-maker SigmaTel and covers "an MPEG portable sound reproducing system and a method for reproducing sound data compressed using the MPEG method."

I found this via: neowin.net
Full story: InfoWorld

From neowin.net comments:

Posted by MrA on 27 Feb 2007 - 02:09

Quote - (GP007 said @ #2.1)
That's when they finally got it from the patent office, but when did they file for it? With so many patents placed each year alone, it takes forever for them to look over it, this could've been filed years ago, before the MP3 player market took off.

According to google patent search:

Quote -
Patent number: 7065417
Filing date: Jan 29, 2002
Issue date: Jun 20, 2006
Inventors: Kwang-su Moon, Jung-ha Hwang
Assignee: SigmaTel, Inc.
Primary Examiner: Xu Mei
Attorney: Toler Schaffer, LLP

The iPod was released in 2001. The Creative Nomad before then. Both should count as prior art and hence the patent should be void.