After much ado about Apple vs. Samsung, it’s now Bose vs. Beats in the limelight of patent infringement war.
Leading maker of sound system and accessories, Bose, filed a lawsuit Friday at the Federal District Court in Delaware over the alleged patent infringement of its noise-cancelling technology used in Beats headphones.
Bose likewise filed its complaint at the International Trade Commission pursuing an order to stop Beats from importing its headphones with noise-cancelling technology from China into the American soil.
"The filing is comprehensive and explains our position, and as a matter of practice, we don’t comment on ongoing litigation. We can share that for over 30 years, Bose has made significant investments in the research, development, engineering and design of the proprietary technologies found in our headphones," Bose says in an issued statement to Mashable.
Bose adds that the company is committed to protect its investment and customers as well as defend the patent it calls its own.
The lawsuit documents, as made available by Priorsmart archive, are 8,073,151: Dynamically configurable ANR filter block topology; 8,073,150: Dynamically configurable ANR signal processing topology; 6,717,537: Method and apparatus for minimizing latency in digital signal processing systems; 8,345,888: Digital high frequency phase compensation; 8,054,992: High frequency compensating.
News about the lawsuit first came reported by the CNBC.
“Bose sues Apple's Beats over noise-canceling headphone patents,” reads CNBC’s statement in its official Twitter account.
Recall that Apple announced on May 28 that it agreed to buy Beats Electronics and Beats Music for $3 billion. Further research says the acquisition hasn’t been completed yet as of this writing, but industry watchers think the present legal tussle of Beats might affect the ongoing acquisition deal. Should the final acquisition deal be inked, Apple will have to face the lawsuit of Bose, adding more weight to its ongoing legal concerns with rival companies such as Samsung over patent infringement cases.
Earlier this month, Beats also pursued legal complaints against Chinese knockoffs, which makes its own battle against Bose a strike of irony. Beats accused websites and companies in China have been using its trademarks in making inexpensive counterfeit headphones, affecting the company’s sales and profits.
In May, news also broke out that MOG founder David Hyman sued Beats Electronics for allegedly firing him prior to having cashed in on the 25 percent equity grant or compensation package promised to him. MOG is a music subscription service that Beats acquired in 2012. Hyman and his team were taken in to create Beats Music.
