Bose Sues New Apple Acquisition Beats Over Patent Violations

Bose has taken issue with some of the technology embodied in products in Apple's newly acquired Beats line of headphones. As Ars Technica reports, Bose is suing Apple, claiming that the Beats products violate five Bose patents, covering noise cancellation and signal processing Although Bose never mentions Apple in the 22-page complaint, the acquisition price of the private company may have played a part in spurring Bose to sue. The suit doesn't include a specific damage demand. Bose has also filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission against Beats over the same infringement claims. That means the patent lawsuit filed in federal court will be stayed while the ITC case gets resolved first.

Comments

Re:Typical

[Anonymous Coward]

Only an ignorant troll would imply that Bose doesn't do original research. You're a troll.

Bose is worried

[PhrostyMcByte]

Bose and Beats are both highly brand-focused. Bose targets the more mature quality-seeking crowd, while Beats targets the bass-hungry and fashion-conscious youth. There's some overlap, but generally I'd say their targets kept competition to a minimum, and they've pretty much cornered those targets

Apple has the best of both worlds being viewed both as high quality and a status symbol. If they start using their monster marketing teams to align peoples' view of Beats with that of Apple, Bose stands a chance of being pushed out of the market by a frightening direct competition. They've got good reason to try to stall the acquisition as much as possible

Re:Bose is worried

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as I can tell, Beats Pro are some of the best studio headphones money can buy at the moment. If they weren't so expensive I would probably own a pair.

What are you, 19? Perhaps you should open both your eyes and ears and take a look at some companies who have been making cans for a LOT longer than a gansta rapper marketing to the ignorant.

Companies like Sennheiser, Shure, and Grados Labs have proven that music does not begin and end with bass.

And it doesn't surprise me that you think these sound good in the studio. The "studio" has managed to hyperbass and overprocess (excite) the living shit out of 99% of pop/rap music today, basically ruining it. Music "mastering" today is defined as turn up the bass and slap on some Autotune for this tone-deaf teeny bopper who can't sing for shit.

A perfect home for Beats.

Re:If there's no highs and no lows, gotta be Bose!

[Dupple]

If there's no highs an lows, it's gotta be Bose...

If there's no mids and tweets, it gotta be Beats!

bad vs bad

[kuzb]

Beats (and by extension, apple) is overpriced, overhyped shit. Bose is overpriced, overhyped shit. I sincerely hope they cost each other millions with this.

Re:Typical

[Ol Olsoc]

Dr. Bose (an actual Doctor, with an MIT Doctorate and everything!) is an innovator par excellence.

Just accross the parking lot is the Bose Research Building, where every design must pass a rigorous Design Assurance Engineering process. They have anechoic chambers, speaker torture (long-term testing) rooms where they do up and down, left and right, circular, and random vibration testing, CAD rooms and all kinds of research tools and methods you can't even imagine (e.g. Salt Fog testing for their Marine products)

And with all this concentrated wonderfulness, and Doctor Bose's (an actual Doctor) Godlike status, Bose speakers are still marginal - at best.

You canna beat the laws of physics, laddie.

Who Cares?

[acoustix]

Bose is an over-priced lifestyle product for the middle aged. Beats is an over-priced status symbol for teens. Both groups of people are unaware that products equal specs can be purchased for much less and that superior products can be purchased for the same price.