Bose sues Beats for infringing on its noise cancelling technology

Bose sues Beats for infringing on its noise cancelling technology

Bose has filed a lawsuit against Beats Music for infringement of its noise-cancelling technology. The suit was filed in federal court in Delaware on Friday and Bose also details filing a complaint in the U.S. International Trade Commission against Beats. 

The “Accused Products” as quoted in the suit are the “Studio®” and “Studio® Wireless” brands which are marketed as featuring “Adaptive Noise Cancellation”. Bose states that: “The Accused Products are designed to use the infringing noise cancelling functionality when operated by an end user. Beats has designed the infringing noise cancelling functionality to be used automatically when a user is listening to music, and Beats instructs users on how to implement noise cancelling functionality when a user only desires noise reduction. “ […] “Beats specifically encourages users to use the infringing functionality. Beats advertises no method to turn off features that cause end users to directly infringe.“

At the heart of the lawsuit are five patents held by Bose which detail its ANR (Active Noise Reduction) technology. Bose details in the suit that the technology was developed after its founder Dr. Bose formulated the basic concept for ANR on a flight from Boston to Zurich in 1978 and goes on to explain its development including its extensive use by the US army.

It is hard to tell whether the acquisition of Beats Electronics by Apple is what convinced Bose to sue. The company does have a history of vigorously defending its patents going after Monster headphones and the New Zealand company Phitek Systems Inc. so it may well be that the complaint was already in the works when the acquisition was announced.

That said, it’s fair to say that if Apple was to make use of the same technology Beats deployed to develop high-end headphones that could make Bose really uncomfortable in its market segment (currently the intersection between Beats' demographic and Bose is minimal) which would warrant a pre-emptive suit to prevent that from happening or at the very least settle on a steep licensing fee. 

(Andrea Leonelli)