Microsoft better be kicking some patent lawyer ass right now, else it's shareholders are going to get testy.  How else to explain Apple slipping in and grabbing a slice of the wireless file transfer goodness, which up until now had been the Zune's (poorly executed) playground?  An application submitted in September last year and just published today discusses mobile devices automatically discovering each other within a wireless network and the ability to transfer data between the two.

As with all patents it's a long, dull, repetitive read, but the key elements appear to be a direct reference to transferring "media data" (e.g. songs) between two devices via a peer-to-peer network.  They also discuss "accessing a remote media depository via a data network" and downloading media direct to a mobile device.

Many have presumed that WiFi-enabling the iPod is the next big update on Apple's agenda, and this patent directly referring to wireless media sharing functionality would seem to add fuel to that suspicion.  It would also be interesting to see whether the iPhone - currently being hailed by some as "the best iPod ever" - will receive an upgrade to similarly share content via its own WiFi (unlikely that they'd use the relatively slow EDGE connection, although perhaps it would be a good selling point for introducing a 3G version?)

[via Crave]