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The patent, granted on 1 March, outlines how two shot would be used to form the housing of an electronic device, describing it as a process that 'allows for a thinner walled enclosure that uses less materials and allows for added structural features that would not be possible using traditional molding techniques. The two shot injection process generally includes forming one or more walls of an enclosure with a first shot and thereafter forming

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the remaining walls of the enclosure with a second shot. During the second shot, the walls fuse together thereby forming an integrally molded enclosure that is one piece.'

The application was initially filed on 16 August 2005, long before the Zune's first appearance, and the list of inventors includes Jonathan Ive, Apple's head of industrial design. A full outline of the process can be found in the patent filing on the US Patent Office site.

Zuney, a site that reports on developments in the Zune market from a pro-Zune viewpoint, called it 'bad news' and said that 'Apple is stealing Microsoft's idea which in my opinion will post [sic] a little threat to the Zune's sales.'