A class-action lawsuit that expanded this week to include the UK and Mexico has apparently awoken the sleeping iPod giant.

Apple Computer has quietly started shipping protective sleeves with the iPod nano. The new sleeves are similar in design to those shipped with the new video iPod, but they are smaller to fit the tiny, pencil-thin Nano.

The company did not return a call for comment, but a customer service representative confirmed that all iPods will now be shipping with the protective sleeve.

The move is Apple's first tangible response to a class-action lawsuit filed against it on October 19 on behalf of iPod Nano users in the US. The suit claimed the Nano screens were defectively designed, allowing the screen to quickly become scratched with normal use.

The lawsuit claimed Apple should have recalled all Nanos that were made with the defective screens, saying Apple let customers "purchase the defectively designed nanos and passed the expense, hassle, frustration of replacing the defectively designed nano along" to Nano owners.

A second class-action lawsuit was tagged on to that one this week, adding plaintiffs from the United Kingdom and Mexico.

In a statement on his firm's Web site, Steve Berman, lead attorney on both cases, said the second suit stemmed from a large number of consumer inquiries about the case from outside the US.

"Apple's iPod Nano has sold in record numbers around the world, just as it did in the US," he said. "It seems that wherever the Nano is sold, problems with the defective design soon follow."

The news of the sleeve first emerged in the forum section of the iLounge site, with photos of the new sleeve posted here.