Comments Due at ITC This Coming Friday on Bose Earpiece Patent Infringement Complaint

Comments are due Friday at the International Trade Commission on the public-interest ramifications of a Bose Tariffs Act Section 337 complaint alleging 14 companies are infringing the patented designs Bose uses in its StayHear earbuds, said a Thursday Federal Register notice. In the complaint (ITC login required) filed May 24 in ITC docket 337-3320, Bose seeks exclusion and cease-and-desist orders against the 14 respondents, alleging infringement of six patents granted between 2012 and 2016 that describe various methods of earpiece “positioning and retention” or “passive noise attenuating.” Before Bose developed the technology in its StayHear earpieces, “prevailing in-ear earbud designs were uncomfortable and unstable,” said the complaint. Most earpieces also “were often unstable in users’ ears, making them difficult and inconvenient to use,” it said. Bose “invested hundreds of hours of labor at its U.S. facilities to research and develop a solution to the issues with the prevailing in-ear earpiece designs,” it said. Exclusion orders against the 14 companies “will not adversely impact U.S. consumers,” it said. Bose “has the ability and capacity to replace the sale of earpiece devices subject to exclusion in a commercially reasonable time,” it said. Representatives of the 14 respondents didn’t comment Friday.