Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine Lose $25 Million Beats Lawsuit
Dr. Dre's bank account may be a bit lighter after a jury found that the he, Jimmy Iovine, and Beats Electronic LLC owe their former partner Steven Lamar $25. 2 million in royalties.
According to a June 27 report from The New York Times, a Los Angeles Superior Court found that Beats was responsible for breaching a contract with Lamar and his Jibe Audio company. Lamar says he came to Dre in 2006 with the idea for celebrity-endorsed headphones.
After reportedly presenting the super-producer with a dozen different headphone models, Lamar says he was owed more than $130 million. While Dre, Iovine and Beats admitted that Lamar was part of the original plans, they say he was only owed money for the original Studio model headphone, which he was already paid for.
While the verdict did not detail separate amounts that will be paid by each defendant, the Beats company was acquired by Apple in 2014 for $3 billion, although Apple was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
"The jury really validated our theory of the case, that Mr. Lamar was involved in the founding of Beats," said Stephen E. Morrissey, Lamar's attorney. "It's not everything we were asking for, but we're happy."
Lamar also revealed that the award he was granted could continue to grow because of future sales of Beats headphones.
The lawsuit is just the latest loss for Dr. Dre, who recently lost a trademark battle against an OB-GYN doctor by the name of Dr. Drai. The trademark office sided with the medical doctor, claiming there wasn't enough evidence to show that the public would be confused by the similarity in their names.
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