Creative has sued Apple in a shameless money-grab. Creative’s Zen sucks choad, and they know it. Now, they’re suing to halt sales of the iPod and the Nano in the United States.

The lawsuit accuses Apple’s iPod navigation scheme of violating one of their patents. It was filed in August of last year. I may not be the sharpest tool in the drawer, but I’ve had an iPod for a lot longer than that. I wasn’t aware you could patent somebody else’s stuff and then take it away from them. I wonder if it’s got anything to do with Creative’s rather lackluster performance last year? The whole thing stinks of the typically Asian lack of honor in matters of intellectual property.

Creative was one of the first companies to build a portable MP3 player, with their Rio. They were also one of the most innovative companies in the PC world with regard to sound hardware. In the mid-to-late 90s, the sound card was generally a separate piece of hardware, and very rarely built into the motherboard. As amazing as it seems know, most PCs didn’t have sound at all. Back then, your choice of sound card was actually a lifestyle choice. Companies like Creative, Turtle Beach, and Gravis were all clamoring for your greenbacks. I loved my Gravis Ultrasound, but the best sound card I ever owned was the Sound Blaster PNP32. It had brilliant sound output, and made absolutely flawless recordings. For a consumer-level card, it was top-drawer. It was the last Creative product I’ve bought. And I’ll probably not be investing in a company’s products that has to resort to lawsuits to generate revenue. That’s usually a pretty good sign that it’s not going to be around much longer.

I hope that Apple gets pissed off here. I hope they create irresistble, cheap products to compete with each and every Creative SKU. Sim Wong Hoo can only sit and fume while his sub-par company collapses around him.