The patent infringement war just got even more interesting after it was announced that Bose has sued Beats Electronics, the newly owned Apple company, for noise-cancellation technology infringements. Interestingly enough, Bose was one of the companies that did not congratulate Beats on being acquired for $3 billion by Apple, now we know why.
On Friday, Bose filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC), asking the agency to prevent the importation of Beats headphones that infringe on its noise-cancellation technology. Bose also filed a lawsuit in Delaware district court.
According to Bose, Beats Studio headphones infringes on the active noise reduction (ANR) technology that can be found in both the Bose QuietComfort 20 and QuietComfort 20i Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones. These particular headphones are covered in around 5 Bose patents. Furthermore, Bose also has the rights to expand the lawsuit's scope if wishes to do so.
According to a section of the complaint, Beats encourages users to use the noise-cancellation functionality that is at the center of the problem.
"Beats has designed the infringing ANR functionality to be used automatically when a user is listening to music, and instructs a user on how to implement ANR functionality when a user simply desires noise reduction," the complaint read. "Thus, Beats specifically encourages users to use the infringing functionality."
We are not certain if Bose spoke with Beats to come up with a settlement out of court before the complaint was filed to the ITC, or maybe Bose waited until the deal with Apple was over before choosing to strike.
Should Apple worry?
One thing we are certain about right now, is that Apple is in no way happy about being a part of another lawsuit. The battle against Samsung has dragged on long enough, and will increase competition in the smartphone and tablet market, chances are Apple would rather work on new products instead of getting involved with another court battle.
In terms of being worried, we believe there's nothing much for the Cupertino giant to worry about. If Bose does come out the victor, then all Apple needs to do is pay to use the technology. It will all depend on if Bose is interested in opening up, or keeping the whole thing in-house.
