“The story of how Beats Electronics was founded just got more interesting,” Eriq Gardner reports for The Hollywood Reporter. “On Friday, the new Apple subsidiary filed a false advertising and unfair competition lawsuit against Steve Lamar for holding himself out to be a co-founder of the headphones company alongside Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.”
“Beats, now owned by Apple after a $3 billion acquisition, doesn’t like the fact that Lamar is capitalizing on Beats’ strong reputation with allegedly false and misleading claims about his association,” Gardner reports. “‘Defendants’ claims are false and misleading because Lamar is not a ‘co-founder’ of Beats Electronics, LLC,’ states the complaint. ‘He does not have — nor has he ever had — any ownership interest in the company. Moreover, Jibe Audio [once run by Lamar] was not responsible for the ‘concept, design, manufacturing and distribution’ of Beats’ headphones.'”
Gardner reports, “Beats, represented by David Walsh at Morrison & Foerster, demands Lamar be enjoined from making misleading statements about his role in the company, be ordered to remove statements made on social media sites, issue a public clarifying statement, and be ordered to pay the Apple subsidiary profits and treble damages.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]