Consumer electronics

Kane Kramer: inventions and patents

Kane Nicholas Kramer is the named inventor on UK patent application GB 2115996, filed on 2 November 1981, for a credit card size portable system that stored digitally encoded sound in bubble memory. Its abstract says an 8 megabyte memory could record three and a half minutes of music. Engadget reported in 2008 that Apple asked him to give evidence in a dispute brought by Burst.com, which Burst and Apple settled out of court.^2,1

Patents

Inventions

• IXI digital audio player, 1979. Engadget reported that Kramer filed a patent in 1979 for the IXI, a device that held about three minutes of music, and let the patent lapse a decade later. Google Patents records that GB 2115996 ceased through non-payment of a renewal fee, in a legal event dated 24 June 1987.^1,2

Disputes

• 2008 (date of report) Burst.com sued Apple, claiming it originated the iPod concept. Engadget reported that Apple asked Kramer to testify that his patent predated Burst's. Kramer was a witness, not a party. Burst and Apple settled out of court. Engadget reported that Kramer was paid a consultancy fee for travelling to California and giving his deposition, and that he had not received money from Apple's iPod success.¹

Sources

1. Engadget, Dude, he invented the friggin' iPod. Have you heard of it? (8 September 2008)
2. Google Patents, GB2115996A Portable data processing and storage system (accessed 2026-10-27)