Bose defeated at USPTO over speaker patents

Speaker maker Bose has been defeated by a US technology company after two patents it had attempted to assert were declared invalid.

The US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decided that SDI Technologies had successfully challenged two Bose patents.

Earlier this year, Bose had accused SDI of patent infringement at a Massachusetts District Court. It had asserted several claims in US patent numbers 8,401,682 and 8,364,295.

SDI challenged the claims and sought an inter partes review at the US Patent and Trademark Office in an attempt to cancel the claims which Bose claimed covered technology used in its iPod compatible speaker systems.

The litigation was put on hold pending the outcome of the review.

But, on Friday (November 7), the PTAB ruled against Bose on both patents.

SDI was represented in the case by Foley & Lardner LLP.

"Bose has continued to seek patent protection in an improper attempt to claim that it invented iPod compatible speakers with remote controls. This ruling confirms that these speakers were not an invention of Bose," said Matthew Lowrie, a partner in the firm’s Boston office.

Bose did not immediately respond to a request for comment.