NEWS: Beats in a lawsuit with Yamaha
Apr 15, 2013 at 7:56 PM Post #421 of 493
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Maybe the sum of money saved from not having to reproduce over half of the frequencies that normal cars have to will balanced out the money for the red "b." :wink:


Say what? Your typical car has pretty lousy audio. My 08 Sentra has the tinny mids and overblown bass. It's unbearably inaccurate and boomy even with the EQ on the lowest setting. I get better sound out of my $10 Philips earbuds!
 
Apr 15, 2013 at 8:49 PM Post #422 of 493
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Say what? Your typical car has pretty lousy audio. My 08 Sentra has the tinny mids and overblown bass. It's unbearably inaccurate and boomy even with the EQ on the lowest setting. I get better sound out of my $10 Philips earbuds!


Hmmm................................................
 

 
Apr 15, 2013 at 11:09 PM Post #423 of 493
Apr 15, 2013 at 11:14 PM Post #424 of 493
Not a lawyer by any means, but I am an engineer with some background in patent law. 
 
Beats will lose this one, and badly, unless this is a suit regarding trade dress and that customers are confused. I can't imagine any patents regarding *functional* design that Yamaha could have violated, and any they may possess will likely be thrown out for failing non-obviousness. With trade dress, they might have a point, but that's notoriously hard to prove, as the Apple v Samsung case proved (where Samsung literally copied even the packaging and wall warts), and the second point, misleading customers, is even harder to prove without an extensive customer survey and guest paid consultant experts. 
 
 
What Beats is really trying to do is get Yamaha to settle. Neither actually wants this to go into trial, because even if Yamaha wins, it'll have to pay its lawyers, as unfortunately, unlike many other countries, there aren't automatic implicit "loser pays" rules (and by loser pays, I mean plaintiff pays). Fortunately, there are some lawmakers in Congress pushing for patent law reform, and we might see a sort of plaintiff pays rule come into effect, which in theory should substantialize reduce the amount of trolling. As it is, however, no one wins but the lawyers making a payday if this goes to trial, so expect a settlement.
 
Apr 18, 2013 at 12:36 AM Post #427 of 493
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Not a lawyer by any means, but I am an engineer with some background in patent law. 
 
Beats will lose this one, and badly, unless this is a suit regarding trade dress and that customers are confused. I can't imagine any patents regarding *functional* design that Yamaha could have violated, and any they may possess will likely be thrown out for failing non-obviousness. With trade dress, they might have a point, but that's notoriously hard to prove, as the Apple v Samsung case proved (where Samsung literally copied even the packaging and wall warts), and the second point, misleading customers, is even harder to prove without an extensive customer survey and guest paid consultant experts. 
 
 
What Beats is really trying to do is get Yamaha to settle. Neither actually wants this to go into trial, because even if Yamaha wins, it'll have to pay its lawyers, as unfortunately, unlike many other countries, there aren't automatic implicit "loser pays" rules (and by loser pays, I mean plaintiff pays). Fortunately, there are some lawmakers in Congress pushing for patent law reform, and we might see a sort of plaintiff pays rule come into effect, which in theory should substantialize reduce the amount of trolling. As it is, however, no one wins but the lawyers making a payday if this goes to trial, so expect a settlement.


Could the absence of a rule compelling losers to pay have something to do with financial disparities which could be used by high-echelon thieves to discourage legal action?  Take the hobbyist inventor who believes that a major corporation has stolen hir work: To the foont who confects anti-gravity paperweights in hir quiet room, losing and then having to pay for the defense of Frantic Dynacosms Ltd (a multi-trillion-dollar company located in the State of Refined Intoxication) might seem a wee Thaddeus intimidating.
 
May 18, 2013 at 2:11 PM Post #428 of 493
Who's sensible enough to buy Monster/Beats audio. OK I get the fashion side of things but that's where it ends. I hope they lose Yamaha has way better reputation and respect from all around the world.
 
May 18, 2013 at 2:15 PM Post #429 of 493
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Who's sensible enough to buy Monster/Beats audio. OK I get the fashion side of things but that's where it ends. I hope they lose Yamaha has way better reputation and respect from all around the world.


Simple math really. For every one person who has heard of Sennhiser, Beyerdynamic AKG etc there are thousands who know the beats brand. In your face market saturation has it's benefits.
 
May 18, 2013 at 3:17 PM Post #430 of 493
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Simple math really. For every one person who has heard of Sennhiser, Beyerdynamic AKG etc there are thousands who know the beats brand. In your face market saturation has it's benefits.

unfortunately so, its really annoying when one walks into the audio shop and asks "how does bla-bla-bla compare with the beats tours? Will bla-bla-bla sound better than the beats pros? Are bla-bla-bla a better buy than beats solos? Does it have active noise cancelling like the beats studios?"
 
May 18, 2013 at 5:55 PM Post #431 of 493
Simple math really. For every one person who has heard of Sennhiser, Beyerdynamic AKG etc there are thousands who know the beats brand. In your face market saturation has it's benefits.

unfortunately so, its really annoying when one walks into the audio shop and asks "how does bla-bla-bla compare with the beats tours? Will bla-bla-bla sound better than the beats pros? Are bla-bla-bla a better buy than beats solos? Does it have active noise cancelling like the beats studios?"


If you're an average person shopping for headphones, do you seriously expect them to say "how do these compare to the H800 or SR-009?"
 
May 18, 2013 at 7:30 PM Post #432 of 493
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If you're an average person shopping for headphones, do you seriously expect them to say "how do these compare to the H800 or SR-009?"

 
Expect? Not all all. Hope, wish, pray and dream? You betcha!! :wink:
 
May 18, 2013 at 11:56 PM Post #433 of 493
Honestly I think many of those who buy beats haven't even heard of AKG, Sennheiser, Beyerdynamic, Grado or Audio Technica
Hell I didn't even know AKG, or Sennheiser existed until I was looking through a Mars Music
 

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