Beats Electronics has definitely faced its share of lawsuits after being acquired by Apple, but today yet another company has announced that it’ll be taking the electronics maker to court. Rival Monster has filed a claim against Beats that alleges the latter stole its headphone tech.
The original Beats headphones were designed in conjunction with Monster, but Monster CEO Noel Lee says that Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre took what they learned from his company—and the technology that powered the headphones—then simply slapped Dre’s name on it.
You can see the full complaint below:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/251885881/212-2015-01-06-MONSTER-COMPLAINT-pdf
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Whats the matter Monster nobody buying your overpriced junk anymore?
Did you read the complaint and understand it? This has nothing to do with whether or not their other products sell, which they do, or whether or not you think their other products are junk or not. Monster is a pretty large well known brand in the audio industry and they did the design work for the Beats products. I don’t care if Apple owns the company now, I personally think they shouldn’t have bought Beats for a variety of reasons, but that doesn’t matter either.
What matters is whether or not the lawsuit has enough validity to it to warrant a lawsuit settlement. Obviously, Monster believes that it does and since neither you or I are on the Jury or the judge on this case, what we think doesn’t matter.
Monster: Shitty headphones, shitty cable
Beats: Shitty headphones
Done, move along, nothing else to see here
Reblogged this on weblablog.
Lawsuit AFTER Apple acquired Beats?? Funny…
Yeah, read the lawsuit and you will understand why it’s being done AFTER the sale.
I see Rich Davis is trolling
Jeff Davis, What’s your problem? Monster needed to wait until the Apple buyout to lodge this type of lawsuit. Do you not understand the concept of trying to figure out what the damages are first? Plus it takes time to meet with attorneys, figure out all of the aspects of the lawsuit, etc. etc. They aren’t suing Apple, they are suing Beats, Dre, Iovine, HTC, and Wachter, Apple isn’t mentioned as one of the defendants on the case.
Reblogged this on Configcrazy.
This dispute has been happening long before Apple acquired Beats. This guy and his dad designed the first Beats headphones for Dre and they didn’t do their due diligence and got shafted on the contract, more or less. Obviously Beats took off and sell well, so I’m sure they want their cut.
As for Beats being overpriced, well yeah…
I think they had a different issue than this current one. They were having an issue when HTC was involved, but that dissolved and then they got bought out by Apple. Either way, it’s an interesting case and I’m not sure how it will turn out, but I never had much respect for Dre or Iovine. Iovine and Dre maybe successful at putting out crap pop/rock/rap music, but the way he (Iovine) carries himself and some of the comments he has made in various interviews leaves me with the thought that the guy is WAY overhyped and in a way a scam artist. I wouldn’t work with the guy if the proposition became available. As far as Dre, I hate rap music and all that it stands for. I don’t think that any of his work is worth buying or listening to as there are a lot of great musicians out there that consume their lives with studying and creating high quality music that is more worthwhile listening to. I think the rap culture is largely responsible for illiterate kids growing up that simply don’t care about actually studying music, the English language, etc. and are more consumed with gang banging thug mentality. I don’t believe Apple (Tim Cook) made a good decision with buying Beats. I’m sure that between this lawsuit and the Bose settlement, that it’s costing Apple more than the $3.2 Bil they originally spent, but the additional bad publicity surrounding it. I just don’t think it was worth it. There are other headphone mfg that have better products that could have been acquired for a lot less and that Apple could have bought another streaming service or created their own for a lot less. I think that streaming music services hasn’t proven that it’s profitable as none of them are making a profit. Spotify is losing more money even when they increase their revenue, they still are losing money. Tidal seems very interesting, but they are catering to the higher end “audiophile” type consumer which will pay more for lossless and soon with MQA technology, which might be very interesting, but that’s a much more expensive proposition due to being lossless.
As far as Beats headphones being overpriced? They obviously sell to a bunch of kids and young adults and they don’t seem to mind. They aren’t the $500 to $5000 headphones, they are selling mostly $99 headphones, which is a price point that’s more on the lower end of the spectrum.
so many words, and just bulshit
Just to “piggyback” on your comments about Iovine: He’s one of the reasons that people who go to live concerts get royally screwed on the “Per Ticket Service Charges” – I’m only shocked that Congress has never looked into the business practices of these “legal” ticket sellers. . . . unless it’s because TicketMaster and LiveNation have paid them off.
And I will not comment on the sound quality of Beats – except to say that as someone who worked in the professional studio in my younger years, I would never consider them anything near accurate.
Did you just said gang banging thug mentality?And also are you talking about the rap today or before? Cause there’s a big difference.
I’m just gonna said you’re ignorant ass hell.
TL:DR Rich Davis is self proclaimed lawyer and audio engineer who lives in his mom’s basement and has a passion for mountain dew code red
Jeff Davis is spewing out BS, I never proclaimed myself as being a lawyer, but I do know a thing or two about lawsuits and that it takes attorneys time to write out this long of a document to submit to the court. I also did not mention that I’m an audio engineer, again, Jeff Davis is trying to slander my reputation. I’m just stating facts based on what’s being presented.
Now, with regards to Jorg and astecskater, even more attempts at trying to slander my reputation.
To Jorg? You didn’t mention what specifically was BS. You just made some rather vague attempt to lodge a comment.
To astecskater, my view on Dre’s music is it is very gangbanger mentality. Read the lyrics of his so-called music. As far as all rap, I really don’t care much for it. I don’t mind hip hop grooves that are played by actual musicians with some jazz melodies, or some real melody lines on top of a hip hop groove, but that’s a different scenario. As far as rap is concerned, it’s not singing melody lines with harmonies, it’s very non-musical to me, and it’s basically not that legitimate of a form of music expression, it came from the streets by people that really haven’t studied music from a harmony, melody perspective, and it’s being hyped in the music industry to kids that pretty much don’t know much about music. It’s also MY opinion. Go ahead and give some examples of how Dre’s music isn’t gangbanger/thug mentality. He did have songs like “Nigga wit a gun”. and other favorites. Look at the lyrics. He and the music he produces degrades other people by the constant use of the N word, degrading women calling them Bitches, etc. Plus, they aren’t using English, they are using Ebonic/slang which is an example of illiteracy. Go ahead, look at the lyrics of every song that Dre has been part of. It’s totally disgusting and I find it annoying that people listen to it and like it. Look at various other rappers and the types of lyrics. Many of the other rappers came from a gang mentality and that’s what it promotes. Have a nice day. Go listen to some jazz, blues, African, Classical Indian, Classical, Latin music that has actual musicians involved and if there is vocals, with some good quality singing instead of someone angrily yelling obscenities and foul language degrading other people.
It’s funny how you only name one, what about 2 pac? Biggie? Wu-tang clan, ODB? They all talk about getting out the GHETTO to make a better living And by the way, everybody knows dre is a fake. He really didn’t do none of that, same with ice-cube. They just money hungry. And I’m laughing so hard cause you think I only listen to one genre? I like all type of music because music is art. It speaks so many emotions. Look at Beethoven, he was deaf but yet he can feel the music. So again, which rap/hip-hop are you talking about? If you are talking about the ones today, like lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Nikki and other artists, then I clearly understand. But you got it all mix up sir, rap/hip-hop die since these new artist came up. And by the way I have no reason to slander your so call reputation, I just want to correct you where you got it all wrong.
Despite one commentator on here defending Monster, it is immediately suspicious that Monster sues when Apple is bankrolling Beats – the alleged conspiracy started well before Apple showed up. No explanantion why they didn’t take action then.
None Needed – Apple has the DEEPEST Pockets!
Life Lesson # 1: When things don’t make sense — Follow The Money
They aren’t suing Apple, read the list of Defendants on the case. As far as why they are doing it now? I’m sure there are several reasons. 1. They have to figure out what is actionable. 2. They have to create this document, which by any means is going to take months to complete. 3. They probably were trying to contact the defendants after they got their money from Apple, as they have to figure out damages, and since they haven’t reached a settlement, then they take action in the legal system. This has nothing to do with Apple directly.
Apple is not one of the defendants on the case. Monster is suing Beats, Dre, Iovine, Wachter, and HTC, Apple is not being sued. Please understand that concept.
I hope Monster win. Those thieving rascals Iovine and Young have made far too much money in their leech-like existence.
Like Noh Lee need any more money… He has been selling overpriced cables for far too long…
Do you know how much it costs to mfg, design, market the cables he sells? I doubt you do. If you actually knew anything about their cables, you would know that they are using silver plated copper wire, which is REALLY expensive to twist and mfg a cable and they can’t be made as cheaply. They also have higher bandwidth if you look at the actual bandwidth of their HDMI cables vs the $4 cables you see on Amazon, for instance. If you actually knew about the costs of making the cable designs, it’s not so simple as bunching wire on a high speed spooler. They also have patents, which costs money, they have also bought patents from other companies, which costs money. They have their own markup as well as the markup of retail stores and distributors, they also offer a lifetime warranty, and they simply aren’t spitting this stuff out like some of the other mfg. Yeah, getting quality cables cost money, but Monster isn’t the highest priced stuff on the market by any stretch of the imagination. Go look at MIT Cables, Audioquest, Nordost, Cardas, Wireworld, and a bunch of other very small boutique cable mfg that have unique cable designs. It has nothing to do with whether Lee “needs” more money, or whether he sells higher priced cables, he feels he got cheated out of tens of millions of dollars based on the percentage of stock ownership and how much Beats was sold to Apple for and if you were in his position, you’d probably do the same thing. People don’t like getting screwed out of tens of millions of dollars. Would you? I find it deplorable that people insert their own biases on the case before they even understand it. You’d probably make a lousy jury member.
Whether he sells high priced cables or not has no bearing on this case.
If he has a legitimate case, then more power to him. Monster was the original design company of the majority of Beats products, they did have a stock percentage arrangement and Lee feels he was screwed out of money he was entitled to.
frankly, both Monster and Beats headphones are overpriced junk.
Then don’t buy their products. I’ve bought Monster products before and didn’t really have a problem with them, I currently don’t use any of their products in any of my systems, but I have in older systems. But I found something else that performs better to my ears. Obviously people that aren’t into high end audio systems don’t understand that high end audio comes with a price tag because it’s a small niche market. Monster and Beats are more mass merchandised products and I don’t find them overpriced, I find them not high quality for my tastes, but that doesn’t mean that Lee doesn’t have a case against Beats, Dre, Iovine, Wachter and HTC. BTW, Apple isn’t getting sued as Apple isn’t listed as one of the defendants.
Shut up