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24 July 2020PatentsRory O'Neill

Koss sues Apple, Bose over ‘pioneering’ headphone tech

Headphone maker  Koss is suing companies including  Apple,  Bose, and  Skullcandy for allegedly infringing patents covering key elements of commonplace wireless headphone technology.

In separate complaints, all filed Wednesday, July 22 at the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Koss claimed that products including Apple AirPods and Bose’s Soundsport range infringe six patents covering features such as Wi-Fi connectivity and an internal microphone.

In the lawsuits, Koss claims to have developed the “first ever true wireless headphones” in the early 2000s. Through its work on a research and development programme known as the “Striva project”, Koss said it developed “working prototypes from the mid-2000s [which look] very much like commonly-known consumer products that flood the market a decade-and-a-half later”.

“Unfortunately, the economic reality of Koss’s market position did not permit it to bring its Striva-based product vision to the masses,” the  complaint said. The result, Koss said, was that the industry had now “caught up” with the work it did on Striva.

“The technology Koss developed as part of its substantial Striva investment has become standardised, with whole listening ecosystems having been built around the techniques Koss conceived of over a decade ago,” the company said.

Koss wants the Texas court to declare that its patents have been infringed, and award three times whatever a jury determines to be reasonable compensation. It also said the case was “exceptional” and warranted an award of attorneys’ fees.

The company attributed its inability to bring Striva to market to “events abroad”, which disrupted its supply chain in the late 2000s and early 2010.

In December 2009, the company’s former vice president Sujata Sachdeva was jailed for six years after being found to have embezzled $34 million.

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