Bose filed a lawsuit on Friday, July 25th against Beats Electronics for patent infringement on decades of work on their Noise-Canceling Headphones.
A prominent host in the Audio Equipment world since its founding in 1964, Bose naturally has spent the time to establish various patents to protect their many inventions. 22 patents to be exact are actively protecting their noise-canceling headphones and 14 are currently pending to be authorized.
The catch, however, is that the timing for this suit is quite opportune of Bose, as Beats is about to be acquired by none other than Apple. Beats has also been selling their version of noise-canceling headphones for a few years, but I guess we’ll never truly know why Bose finally, yet rightfully decided to take Beats to court now.
As a Bose consumer, I feel slightly partial to Bose’s products and history. They were the very first to commercially sell active noise reduction headsets in 1989 that were specifically designed for aviation and military, and in 2000 they introduced their QuietComfort brand of Acoustic Noise-Canceling headphones. Therefore, it does go to show that Bose has been consistently striving to improve and update their equipment so one can’t blame them for trying to defend their hard work.
In the Civil Complaint Bose filed on Friday:
“Because Bose invests heavily in research and development, and because Bose has built its reputation on producing superior products through innovative technology, Bose’s continued success depends in substantial part on its ability to establish, maintain, and protect its proprietary technology through enforcement of its patent rights.”
Beats has declined to comment about the infringement at this point.
[Via iDownloadBlog.com]