Facing increasing losses, Singapore-based electronics maker Creative Technology has filed two legal actions against Apple Computer on Monday, claiming that the popular iPod violates its patents. This isn’t at all surprising, since Creative has said they planned to sue Apple end of last year. However, it apparently took them five months of negotiations to realize that Apple was not going to license their patent, and that they really need to sue.

In a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, Creative is asking for an injunction stopping Apple from selling the iPod and iPod Nano in the United States. Separately, Creative has also sued Apple in U.S. District Court in California, seeking damages.

In the center of Creative’s lawsuit is an invention on user interface software used by most portable digital media players, including the iPod. This invention is protected by a 2005 patent entitled “Automatic Hierarchical Categorization of Music by Metadata,” (U.S. Patent No. 6,928,433) Creative said.