LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — A jury in Los Angeles on Wednesday decided that Beats Electronics owes one of its early designers 25 million in royalties.
According to Bloomberg, the jury sided with Steven Lamar that under a 2007 settlement with the headphone manufacturer’s founders, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, that he was entitled to a share of the headphones that were based on his design and not just the original studio model.
Lamar claimed that in 2006, he took a design idea for high-quality headphones with a distinctive design that would be promoted by a celebrity to Iovine, who suggested bringing Dr. Dre in to endorse the product, Bloomberg reported.
Lamar says he continued to develop the product and later had a falling out with Beats founders, in 2006 that led to them taking him to court for breach of contract. The litigants later settled the case, with Lamar signing over the rights to the original Beats Studio cans, which debuted in 2008, in exchange for royalties from future products based on that design, Bloomberg said.
However, Lamar claimed that he did not receive royalties from other products.
Lamar’s attorney Brian Melton told Bloomberg that the jury awarded his client royalties for later studio models, but not for other Beats models. Lamar is entitled to interest and attorney fees which could bring the total north of $40 million, Melton told the publication.
Representatives of Apple and Beats did not respond to requests for comment on the verdict.
