Apple is being sued by ZapMedia based on a claim that the online iTunes store as well as the iPod were infringements of ZapMedia’s patents. Zapmedia claimed that it tried repeatedly to negotiate with Apple and when this failed they filed the suit against Apple.

The suit was filed on Wednesday in Marshall, Texas in the US District Court. According to the suit ZapMedia Services’ property was being unlawfully exploited and they therefore wanted a royalty on this. This was a statement made by Steven G. Hill.

Zapmedia said that they tried to negotiate with Apple between June 2006 and Fall 2007. They informed Apple about their patents and told them that their intellectual property could be licenced.

RObert J. Frohwein, general counsel of ZapMedia said that their vision and intellectual property had been used without a licence and therefore they needed to protect it using all means available to them.

ZapMedia Inc. had developed a system for distributing media assets to devices via a synchronized portal. Two US patents, No. 7,020,704 and No. 7,343,414 had also been obtained by them. They had met with many companies including Apple and described their ideas.