built with Texas Instruments's TMS320DA25x ARM architecture and digital signal processor that makes up the CPU, while the operating system used is Texas Instruments DSP/BIOS. The peripheral circuits take care of all media decoding without any accelerator chips. The touchpads are managed by Synaptics controllers. The newer ZEN players uses SigmaTel's STMP3700 ARM, described to be "designed specifically for portable devices". Nucleus RTOS makes up the base of their OSes. Marketing campaign Creative Labs was known for its fierce rivalry against Apple, at one point "declaring war" with the iPod, but the Zen line never managed to gain a significant foothold against the iPod. In November 2004, Creative Labs announced a $100 million marketing campaign to promote their digital audio products, including the ZEN range of MP3 players. In particular, the company was heavily publicizing the Zen Touch and ZEN Micro. These two products had been featured in an increasing number of television commercials, print ads, and urban billboards. Many celebrities were seen with the ZEN Micro, including Paris Hilton, pop group Maroon 5 and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler. Legal issues Creative Labs, the American subsidiary of Creative Technology Limited, was awarded a patent on a music management interface (now commonly seen on audio players, including the Apple iPod) by the US Patent and Trademark Office on 25 August 2005, having applied for it on 5 January 2001. Apple had filed for a similar patent on 22 October 2002 but that application was rejected. At the launch of the Vision:M, Creative announced that it would "aggressively pursue" respect of its patents, addressing "all manufacturers that use the same navigation system." So far, Creative has only addressed Apple's infringement of its patent. Creative announced on 15 May 2006, that it had launched a lawsuit against Apple for the infringement of the ZEN patent (Creative also asked the US Trade Commission to investigate whether Apple was breaching trade laws by importing iPods into the US), which was then counter-sued by Apple on the same day, filing two lawsuits for infringing their patents. Subsequently, Apple and Creative reached a settlement, with Apple paying $100 million to Creative, and Creative joining the "Made for iPod" accessory program. Sales and market share Sales of Creative's MP3 players (which included the MuVo line along with the Zen) significantly decreased after about 2005, leading to a financial loss in 2006. This was due to tough competition in North