Bose Sues Beats Over Noise-Cancelling Patents

By Daisuki Wakabayashi at Wall Street Journal Digits Blog: 


Bose is suing Beats Electronics, the headphone and speaker maker that Apple agreed to acquire for $3 billion earlier this year, for infringing on patents related to its noise-cancelling technology.

Bose filed the lawsuit on Friday in U.S. District Court in Delaware, saying that Beats – known for its colorful and flashy headphones – had infringed on five of its patents pertaining to its noise-cancelling headphones. Bose also filed a complaint to the U.S. International Trade Commission, seeking to halt the sale and import of certain Beats products.

In the lawsuit, Bose asks for damages and an injunction against Beats.

“We are committed to protecting our investment, protecting our customers, and defending the patents we own,” a Bose spokeswoman said in a statement. Spokespeople for Beats and Apple declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The complaint doesn’t affect the closing of the Apple deal scheduled for September, according to one person familiar with the matter.

Apple Confirms it's Buying Beats for $3 Billion

Apple has just confirmed plans to purchase Beats Electronics for $3 billion. The acquisition ranks as the largest that Apple has ever made and will see it take ownership of an enormously successful and profitable line of consumer headphones as well as a burgeoning subscription music service. Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will also join Apple as part of the acquisition, which it will pay for with $2.6 billion in cash and $400 million in stock.

Iovine and Dre will work with Apple on its future music offerings. "They’re going to be coming up with [features] that blow your mind," Apple CEO Tim Cook tells The New York Times, "and products you haven’t thought of yet, and seeing around the next corner to articulate the way to take music to an even higher level than it is now."

The two companies will remain separate and even continue to offer casually competing services, including iTunes Radio and the recently launched Beats Music subscription service. Apple says that Beats' focus on music is complementary to its own, though it hasn't gone into detail on how it'll manage or integrate this first big acquisition. Though this is a relatively huge purchase for Apple — which usually only buys smaller companies — the cost is far less meaningful to it thanks to its sizable stockpile of cash.



Read the full story at The Verge.

Beats Music Streaming Service, Soon In US

Beats says its new Beats Music streaming service will launch ‘within the next few months’ in the US.

Beats will launch its long-awaited music streaming service, Beats Music, “within the next few months” in the United States. Luke Wood, president and COO of the company, told TNW that it will be accessible on the Web, as well as from an iOS or Android device. Support for Windows 8, presumably through a dedicated app, will arrive at a later date.

Beats acquired MOG, another music streaming service, for $14 million in July last year. The company was already working on Beats Music before the buyout, but subsequently accelerated the project’s internal development.



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