14 DAY TRIAL // With $3 billion coming in the bank, Beats' owners must be the happiest people in tech. Unless they lose some of that to Bose for infringing their patents.
Two months ago, Beats was acquired by Apple. The big decision was announced by Tim Cook in a Press Release and on stage at Apple's 2014 World Wide Developers Conference.
Just a week ago, Beats was suing all the manufacturers and sellers of fake Beats headphones because they were stealing their Intellectual Property. The big law suit didn't even start in China and today, Beats Electronics got subpoenaed.
Bose Corporation is suing Beats Electronics and Beats Electronics International for infringing five of their patents. These are related to noise-canceling technologies:
- 8,073,151: “Dynamically configurable ANR filter block topology” by Joho et. al.. Includes 30 claims (2 indep.). Was application 12/430,994. Granted 12/6/2011.
- 8,073,150: “Dynamically configurable ANR signal processing topology” by Joho et. al.. Includes 24 claims (2 indep.). Was application 12/430,990. Granted 12/6/2011.
- 6,717,537: “Method and apparatus for minimizing latency in digital signal processing systems” by Fang et. al. Prosecuted by Thelen Reid & Priest LLP Robbins; Steven J.. Includes 19 claims (3 indep.). Was application 10/179,930. Granted 4/6/2004.
- 8,345,888: “Digital high frequency phase compensation” by Carreras et. al.. Includes 16 claims (3 indep.). Was application 12/750,309. Granted 1/1/2013.
- 8,054,992: “High frequency compensating” by Sapiejewski.. Includes 23 claims (6 indep.). Was application 11/409,894. Granted 11/8/2011.
Bose lawyers believes that Beats pro noise-canceling headphones and other high end products like Beats Studio and Beats Studio Wireless have used that technology. It appears that at least 36 patents were infringed.
According to idownloadblog.com Beats was in the headphones making business since 2005. However, Bose was there since 1964. Beats prides itself with their products that are built using 3 major technologies: noise isolation, noise-cancelation and adaptive noise-cancelation. The company was founded 50 years ago by Amar G. Bose. The company now has eight manufacturing facilities and 153 high-end retail stores.
Beats was founded in 2006 by rapper Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. Over the past few years they have partnered with HTC, HP and other until they went their own ways. On May 28th, 2014, Apple has announced that it would acquire Beats for $3billion in cash and stock. At The last week's financial call, Apple's CEO, Tim Cook explained that the acquisition will reflected in the Q4 revenue.