Bose Sues Apple’s Beats Over Noise-Cancelling Headphone Patents

Bose logo

Bose has decided to sue Apple’s Beats, alleging the latter has infringed on five of the former’s noise-cancelling headphone patents, first noted by CNBC:

Bose says their current line of noise cancelling headphones “embodies inventions protected by at least 36 U.S. patents and applications (22 patents and 14 pending applications). The company accuses models such as the Beats Studio and Beats Wireless headphones as infringing on patents and allowing Beats to “derive substantial revenue from the sale and use of products.”

The complaint filed today, which you can view on Priorsmart (via TechCrunch) says Dr. Bose came up with the idea to create noise cancelling technology on a 1978 flight back to Boston from Zurich, after experiencing disappointing with in-flight headphones.

According to Forbes, Bose is listed as the 187th largest American company with 9,300 employees and $2.5 billion in annual revenue as of December 2013. Apple had $37.4 billion in revenue in its recent Q3 alone.

What a convenient time for Bose to sue Beats, especially after Apple acquired the company for $3 billion back in May.

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