Bose Files Lawsuit Against Beats, Citing Five Patent Infringements

Now that the dust has settled in the wake of Apple's widely publicized announcement of its acquisition of Beats Electronics (which still has yet to close), the Cupertino company's starting to learn that it brought some unexpected baggage with it. Bose today filed a lawsuit against Beats, claiming that the company infringed on five of the company's patents.

As reported by TechCrunch, Bose alleges that Beats' headphones, many of which claim to support "Adaptive Noise Cancellation," draw heavily from Bose's more than 50 years of research into the design of its QuietComfort noise-cancellation headphones.

The patents in question include United States Patent No. 6,717,537, or "Method and Apparatus for Minimizing Latency in Digital Signal Processing Systems;" Patent No. 6,717,537, or "Method and Apparatus for Minimizing Latency in Digital Signal Processing Systems,” Patent No. 8,073,151: “Dynamically Configurable ANR Filter Block Technology;" Patent No. 8,054,992: "High frequency Compensating;" and No. 8,345,888 - "Digital High Frequency Phase Compensation."

And Bose isn't kidding around. The well-known audio company wants Beats to stop producing headphones that infringe on Bose's patents, and the company's even gone so far as to request a ban on offending Beats products from the International Trade Commission.

Bose also responded to TechCrunch with a statement that read as follows: "The filing is comprehensive and explains our position, and as a matter of practice, we don’t comment on on-going litigation. We can share that for over 30 years, Bose has made significant investments in the research, development, engineering and design of the proprietary technologies found in our headphones. Bose’s patented technologies enable the exclusive performance found in our QuietComfort® Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones. We are committed to protecting our investment, protecting our customers, and defending the patents we own."

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