Apple-Bose ITC Headphone Settlement Cites Their ‘Long-Standing’ Relationship
Apple and Bose "have a long-standing business relationship and, after discussions with Apple, Bose intends to dismiss and terminate" the legal actions in which it alleged Beats Electronics violated five Bose patents on noise-canceling headphones. So said Apple and Bose…
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in a settlement agreement (http://1.usa.gov/ZY4Ger) signed Sept. 26 and posted Friday at the International Trade Commission, where the companies moved jointly to have the ITC’s Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into the allegations terminated. The heavily redacted settlement agreement, which was signed by Noreen Krall, Apple vice president-chief litigation counsel, and Mark Sullivan, Bose vice president-general counsel and secretary, was the first time in the nearly three-month-old case that Apple’s name appeared in the case under ITC docket 337-TA-927. Bose filed identical complaints against Beats on July 25 at the ITC 1407290010 and in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, a week before Apple completed the deal to acquire Beats for $3 billion with a "Welcome to the family" page on its website (http://bit.ly/1uV9Hjh). Bose and Beats moved jointly to have the Delaware action stayed pending the outcome of the ITC probe and on Friday moved to have that case dismissed as well. It’s unclear why two weeks passed between the Sept. 26 signing of the settlement agreement and the filing of the joint motion Friday to have the ITC investigation terminated. In the interim, Bose and Beats moved jointly Oct. 1 to request a two-week deadline extension to Oct. 20 for the filing a discovery statement and proposed procedural schedule in the ITC probe (http://1.usa.gov/ZY4xHX). Administrative Law Judge David Shaw granted the motion the next day. As of midday Tuesday, Shaw hadn’t signed off on or granted the motion to terminate the investigation. Apple and Bose representatives didn’t immediately comment.