Bose and Apple's Beats announce settlement of patent infringement lawsuit

Posted:
in General Discussion edited October 2014
Premium audio company Bose and Apple-owned Beats Electronics disclosed on Friday that they have settled their patent infringement dispute out of court, preventing a potential trial between the two competitors.




Bose, who first filed the complaint in July, disclosed to a U.S. District Court in Delaware that it has dismissed its patent infringement accusations against rival Beats. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Previously, Bose had accused Beats of infringing upon five noise-canceling patents used for its QuietComfort branded headphones. In the original complaint, Bose alleged that the Beats Studio and Studio Wireless headphones, featuring "adaptive noise cancelation," were infringing products.

The news comes the same day a new rumor claimed that Apple plans to remove all Bose audio products from its retail stores beginning next week. No reason was given for the alleged split between the two companies, but with Apple's $3 billion purchase of Beats earlier this year, the two companies do compete in the premium-priced audio accessory space for both headphones and speakers.

The growing rivalry between Bose and Apple is also playing out in the National Football League, where players have been barred from wearing Beats headphones in postgame press conferences. Bose is the official audio partner of the NFL, and NFL rules dictate that players cannot promote unsponsored products when conducting interviews, including 90 minutes following the end of a game.

The issue took the spotlight this week when it was revealed that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kapernick was fined $10,000 for wearing a pair of pink breast cancer awareness-themed Beats headphones at a press conference last Sunday.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 101
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    Sounds good.
  • Reply 2 of 101
    The Beats deal has just gotten even MORE expensive for Apple.

    I hope it's worth it.
  • Reply 3 of 101
    yojimbo007yojimbo007 Posts: 1,165member
    Not a good idea to remove Bose from apple stores!
  • Reply 4 of 101
    davendaven Posts: 696member
    But the Apple haters tell us that Apple is unreasonable.
  • Reply 5 of 101
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    philboogie wrote: »
    Sounds good.

    From what I hear on the other thread, they sound horrible. Haha.
  • Reply 6 of 101
    Do you know the settlement terms? Will Apple now not pull Bose products? Interested in your source, if there is one.
  • Reply 7 of 101
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Yojimbo007 View Post



    Not a good idea to remove Bose from apple stores!

    Do you sell competitor's products in your store?

  • Reply 8 of 101
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    yojimbo007 wrote: »
    Not a good idea to remove Bose from apple stores!

    Other way around, at least until we hear results of settlement. Apple pulls Bose hardware from best sales locations in world then Bose settles out of court. I think Apple won this round.
  • Reply 9 of 101
    plovellplovell Posts: 824member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by stevenoz View Post



    The Beats deal has just gotten even MORE expensive for Apple.

    We don't know that. Maybe, maybe not. I haven't seen anything more - is there any announcement out there?

  • Reply 10 of 101
    tundraboytundraboy Posts: 1,884member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

    You don't carry your competitors products in your store.




    You do if you make more money selling your competitors' products.

  • Reply 11 of 101
    plovellplovell Posts: 824member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by fallenjt View Post

     

    Do you sell competitor's products in your store?




    Yeah but ...

     

    Bose also makes speakers, and those do not compete with Beats.

  • Reply 12 of 101
    newbeenewbee Posts: 2,055member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tundraboy View Post

     



    You do if you make more money selling your competitors' products.




    I don't think Apple will be hurt too bad by not taking your "advice" .....they seem to be doing all right as far as making money goes. You, on the other hand ........?

  • Reply 13 of 101
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post

     

     

    So you want Apple to carry Samdung phones in their stores also?

    You don't carry your competitors products in your store.


    Last time I looked you could buy MS Office in the Apple Store.

  • Reply 14 of 101
    h2ph2p Posts: 329member
    yojimbo007 wrote: »
    Not a good idea to remove Bose from apple stores!
    Hmm. It may have been the rumor that had Bose "give in." We know how long patent suits can go on à la Samsung. (I believe that Samsung earned $8 billion in the time it took them to lose $1 billion in a lawsuit -- even that got knocked down.) i'm thinking that Bose knew how much money they could make by having their items in Apple stores.
  • Reply 15 of 101
    tundraboytundraboy Posts: 1,884member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by newbee View Post

     



    I don't think Apple will be hurt too bad by not taking your "advice" .....they seem to be doing all right as far as making money goes. You, on the other hand ........?




    I have AAPL shares that I bought at $5 a share.  How do you think my money making went?

     

    My post was an answer to a theoretical question about whether you should categorically not sell a competitor's product.  Not advice to Apple.  Nowhere was it mentioned in the post that it was advice directed to Apple.  Why would you jump to that conclusion?  Learn to differentiate between what you are reading and what is in your muddled head and don't attribute what's in the latter to the former.

  • Reply 16 of 101
    adonissmuadonissmu Posts: 1,776member
    stevenoz wrote: »
    The Beats deal has just gotten even MORE expensive for Apple.

    I hope it's worth it.
    or maybe they already factored it into the settlement?
  • Reply 17 of 101
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    stevenoz wrote: »
    The Beats deal has just gotten even MORE expensive for Apple.

    I hope it's worth it.

    Exactly- now it's a $3B plus whatever this costs. Isn't there another lawsuit by one of its founders too?
  • Reply 18 of 101
    adonissmuadonissmu Posts: 1,776member
    tundraboy wrote: »

    I have AAPL shares that I bought at $5 a share.  How do you think my money making went?

    <span style="line-height:1.4em;">My post was an answer to a theoretical question about whether you should categorically not sell a competitor's product.  Not advice to Apple.  Nowhere was it mentioned in the post that it was advice directed to Apple.  Why would you jump to that conclusion?  Learn to differentiate between what you are reading and what is in your muddled head and don't attribute what's in the latter to the former.</span>
    so Apple has taken your advice on how to make money?
  • Reply 19 of 101
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    adonissmu wrote: »
    or maybe they already factored it in?

    Apple may be brilliant but even they don't possess an iCrystalball to foretell future costs back in May as this wasn't even filed then.
  • Reply 20 of 101
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    sog35 wrote: »
    Beats also makes speakers

    That suck worse than their headphones.
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