Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. asked a judge to throw out patent infringement claims by Burst.com Inc., a software company that says Apple owes it millions in fees for using its patented technology in the iPod music player.

Burst.com, a three-employee company that lost $533,000 last year, and Apple, which has sold 100 million iPods since 2001, sued each other last year in federal court in San Francisco over patents for compressing, storing and sharing audio and video information at high speeds through computer networks.

Burst.com, based in Santa Rosa, California, says its inventions, dating back to 1990, are at the core of the iPod's commercial success. Apple says Burst.com's founder and patent holder, Richard Lang, combined inventions of others, called prior art, and claimed they were new.

``It's not some epiphanous, oh my God, when you put all these things together you have an iPod,'' Matthew Powers, Apple's attorney, told U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel at a hearing today in San Francisco. ``That is what they are trying to do to save the core, which is obviously all in the prior art. None of which is invented by Mr. Lang.''

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that claims of patent holders whose inventions are obvious, anticipated changes to existing inventions should be dismissed, Powers said.

Burst.com settled a lawsuit over the same patents with Microsoft in 2005, with Microsoft agreeing to pay $60 million.

Patented Technologies

Leslie Payne, Burst.com's attorney, said Apple stole the company's patented technologies, which differ from inventions that existed when Lang developed them. A jury should be allowed to hear the case, Payne told Patel.

``They copied what Mr. Lang invented. This integrated device, that commercial success is directly due to the features of these claims,'' Payne said.

Apple sued Burst.com in January 2006, seeking a court order invalidating Burst.com's patents. Burst.com said the lawsuit followed a breakdown in licensing talks and countersued Apple in April 2006.

The case is Apple v Burst.com., 06-19, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

To contact the reporter on this story: Karen Gullo in San Francisco federal court at kgullo@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 18, 2007 21:12 EDT