Dr Dre hit with $25m bill for Beats headphones

Dr Dre and music mogul Jimmy Iovine have been ordered to pay $25.2m (£19.2m) to a former partner in their headphone company, Beats.

Steven Lamar claimed credit for the idea of creating a brand of celebrity-endorsed headphones.

He took the idea to Dre and Iovine in 2006; and the first Beats headphones were released two years later, based on a design by Robert Brunner.

The parties later fell out, and Lamar sued over unpaid royalties in 2016.

At the centre of their dispute was a 2007 settlement, in which Dre and Iovine agreed to pay Lamar 4% of the base price of every headphone they sold.

Only one model, Beats Studio, was specified but Lamar argued the design had been carried over to a dozen different models, and sought $130m (£99m) in royalties.

A jury in Los Angeles decided that three pairs of headphones - the Studio 2 Remastered, the Studio 2 Wireless and the Studio 3 - had design similarities; and ordered that Dre and Iovine should pay Lamar $25,247,350.

With the Studio 3 still on sale, the verdict means Lamar will continue to receive royalties in addition to the court-mandated payout.

SOURCE: BBC NEWS
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