Beats Electronics denies Bose allegations it infringed five Bose noise-canceling...

Beats Electronics denies Bose allegations it infringed five Bose noise-canceling headphone patents, and wants the investigation into those allegations terminated, Beats told the U.S. International Trade Commission last week in its answer to the Bose complaint (http://1.usa.gov/1u9bx0M). Beats believes the Bose patents are not “valid or enforceable” because they were issued “in violation of one or more provisions” of U.S. patent law, Beats said without elaborating. Bose filed the ITC complaint July 25 seeking exclusion and cease-and-desist orders against Beats imports. But the relief Bose seeks “would not further the public interest,” and would “adversely affect the public welfare, competitive conditions, and the U.S. consumer,” Beats said. Bose “has failed to show that it is practicing the claims of the asserted patents in the United States or that it has made a significant investment in U.S. plant and equipment related to the asserted patents, a significant employment of U.S. labor and capital related to the asserted patents, or a substantial investment in U.S. exploitation of the asserted patents, including engineering, research, development, and/or licensing in the United States,” Beats said. ITC judges voted unanimously Aug. 27 to open a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into the Bose allegations (CED Aug 29 p6). Two days later, U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke granted Beats its motion for a stay, pending the outcome of the ITC investigation, in the mirror complaint that Bose filed against Beats July 25 in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware (CED July 29 p3). Bose lawyers did not oppose the Beats motion for a stay, court documents said (http://1.usa.gov/1rcU5EU). Beats and Bose representatives didn’t comment on the Beats answer to the Bose ITC complaint, which is being heard in ITC docket number 337-TA-927.