A judge has granted Boss’ motion to dismiss after Behringer hit the company with a lawsuit over the use of polyphonic tuning technology.
In March, Empower Tribe, the owner of Behringer and TC Electronic, filed a lawsuit against Boss parent company, Roland, claiming the latter had produced a “knock off” version of its patented polyphonic tuner.
At the time, Boss removed the polyphonic tuner function from many of its flagship modeler pedals, including the GT-1000, GT-1000CORE, GX-100 and GX-10, pending litigation.
Boss filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that Behringer’s original patent for polyphonic tuning – first used in the TC Electronic PolyTune pedal in 2011 – fell short on key criteria.
Specifically, Boss’ motion stated that the polyphonic tuning failed to adequately show the “inventive concept”, which is required for patents.
The judge residing over the case agreed. In court documents, it was asserted that Empower Tribe had failed to justify its patent despite attempts to protect its existence. Roland therefore could not be penalized as the patent was unenforceable in the eyes of the court.
“The Court agrees that nothing in the claim limitations, considered individually and together as a whole, is sufficient to transform the Asserted Claims into a patent-eligible invention,” the court says.
“Because the Court finds that the Asserted Claims are directed to an abstract idea and lack an inventive concept to transform the Asserted Claims, the Court grants the Motion.”
The court has also said it would be “futile” to allow Empower Tribe to amend its complaint, owing to the fact that patent-ineligibility is a “defect which cannot be cured through amendment”.
As such, Behringer’s Complaint has been dismissed with prejudice, and in doing so may have just set a precedent for the open use of polyphonic tuners elsewhere. Now that the polyphonic tuning patent is unenforceable, Empower Tribe seemingly no longer holds a monopoly on multi-string tuning.
It’s the latest legal tangle for Behringer, which was sued by Klon creator Bill Finnegan last year over its $69 Centaur Overdrive Klon copy. The lawsuit was dismissed after Behringer introduced a number of name and stylistic changes to the pedal.
Boss has been contacted for comment.
