A Californian appeals court has allowed a former hedge fund manager to continue his case over Beats headphones – meaning Dr Dre could be facing a long court battle.
Steven Lamar was sued by Dr Dre and his co-founder, Apple Music head honcho Jimmy Iovine, in 2006; a settlement saw 4% royalties to be paid.
Now, Lamar alleges that the agreements extends to all headphones arising from the original design, and not merely the past models. While the case was dismissed in June of last year, judge Roger Boren has now overturned the original ruling, deciding the wording of the settlement "ambiguous" and leaving the good doctor needing a good lawyer.
“There is no language in the contract limiting the agreement to a single model or product," read the judge's ruling. "Instead, the focus of the agreement is on the patented design on which the parties collaborated. Lamar has presented evidence that other headphone models, such as the Solo, were protected by the same patent granted on the headphones design illustrated in Schedule I of the Royalty Agreement.
"Thus, the agreement is certainly reasonably susceptible to an interpretation that it covers more than just the original, Studio, headphone model.”