Fanny Wang Monster Lawsuit Ends with a Whimper

It seems ages ago that we reported on Monster Cable suing Fanny Wang over their headphones which had a passing similarity to their Beats by Dr. Dre. The lawsuit has been going on for more than a year but the process, which began by a lawsuit filed in December of 2010 by Beats Electronics, LLC and Monster Cable Products Inc. (Beats by Dr. Dre) against Fanny Wang Headphone Co, has come to an end. The suit, which we felt was extremely frivolous, was based on a design patent, not any proprietary technology, and accused Fanny Wang of infringing on US Design Patent D552,077. Last week, the lawsuit was settled by both parties. Of highest note, there was apparently no award assigned and neither of the two headphones companies paid the other any money.

The lawsuit was particularly noteworty among Monster Cable's numerous onerous and typically frivolous lawsuits because it involved the company seeking to move for a temporary restraining order to prevent Fanny Wang’s sale of headphones as well as their attendance at CES 2010. Fortunately, the Federal judge for the Northern District of California rejected the proposed restraining order, citing a lack of clear and convincing evident of consumer confusion. That confusion and lack of clear and convincing evidence remains to this day, though our initial response was that Fanny Wangs did indeed look similar to Beats by Dr. Dre - just not enough to exceed the typical similarities found in every other manufacturing demographic.

The end result is that all parties involved in the original suit: Fanny Wang Headphone Co, Beats Electronics, LLC and Monster Cable Products, Inc., have agreed to end the litigation, and "steps will be made to avoid any future consumer confusion". Fanny Wang doesn't seem to have been very affected by the whole process and gets to continue to sell its line of headphones.