Chestnut Hill Sound, the inventor of the 2007 iPod Product called "George™" sues Apple for Patent Infringement. The products that allegedly infringe upon their patents include every iDevice Apple makes including the iPhone 6 that uses Apple's Remote app for iTunes.

The following is directly from the court document outlining Chestnut Hill Sound's "factual allegations" against Apple:

Factual Allegations

On or about July 29, 2004, Chestnut Hill Sound was originally incorporated in Massachusetts as The Multinational Sound Company, Inc. On or about August 31, 2005, The Multinational Sound Company, Inc. changed its name to Chestnut Hill Sound Inc. On or about January 4, 2007, Chestnut Hill Sound Inc. was migrated from Massachusetts to Chestnut Hill Sound Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Chestnut Hill Sound"). Throughout this complaint, "Chestnut Hill Sound" will be used to refer to The Multinational Sound Company, Inc. and Chestnut Hill Sound Inc., regardless of the time period.

In October 2004, Chestnut Hill Sound disclosed to Apple its concept that Apple's iPod could be the center of the digital audio system for the home and office if it could be controlled, inter alia, from a true bi-directional remote control.

On or about October 28, 2004, representatives of Chestnut Hill Sound met with Apple representatives, including Don Ginsburg, iPod Connector License Mgr, Craig Keithley, iPod Evangelist and David Harrington, Manager Hardware Developer Relations, in Cupertino, CA.

During the October 28, 2004 meeting, Chestnut Hill Sound disclosed its business strategy to Apple, including its plans to develop new products that worked with the iPod.

Based on the filing of Chestnut Hill Sound's provisional patent applications that had just taken place a day earlier, certain of Chestnut Hill Sound's presentation materials at the October 28, 2004 meeting were marked "patent pending."

Apple's representatives told the representatives of Chestnut Hill Sound at the conclusion of that meeting that they were impressed with Chestnut Hill Sound's technology plans and that no one else in the industry had approached Apple with a similar plan.

In March 2005, Chestnut Hill Sound demonstrated its confidential and proprietary system emulator to Don Ginsburg, Craig Keithley, Rick Jackman, Apple Store US Merchandise Manager, Eric Romberg, Apple Website Merchandise Manager and Greg Zeren, Apple Store Marketing Manager via videoconference.

On or about August 19, 2005, Chestnut Hill Sound performed an in-person demonstration in Cupertino, CA to Don Ginsburg and the Apple Retail Store team of Chestnut Hill Sound's first integrated hardware and software product prototype that was marked on its external rear panel with a Patent Pending notice. At Mr. Ginsburg's request, Chestnut Hill Sound representatives allowed Mr. Ginsburg to take temporary custody of the prototype in order to show Chestnut Hill Sound's prototype to representatives of Apple's senior management.

At the Macworld tradeshow in January 2007, the same event at which Apple introduced the iPhone to the public, Chestnut Hill Sound launched its first product, named George™, an integrated iPod audio system.

George™ was named one of Macworld Magazine's Best of Show Award winners and was subsequently recognized as a Product of the Year by PC World and Macworld magazines. On January 17, 2007, Chestnut Hill Sound's first pending utility patent application (filed in 2005, based on the 2004 and 2005 priorities of its provisional patent applications) was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Chestnut Hill Sound's first retail partner for distribution of George™ was with Apple's retail stores and Apple.com. Initially, the retail distribution relationship included only Apple's flagship stores, but was expanded to approximately eighty stores and continued through late 2008.

Chestnut Hill Sound secured widespread distribution of George™ in the summer of 2008, with Best Buy, Sharper Image, Tweeter, and other retailers. Chestnut Hill Sound also secured online distribution through Amazon.com.

From October 2004 through late 2008, Chestnut Hill Sound raised over $5 million of debt and equity investment.

In October 2008, Chestnut Hill Sound was forced to cease development and manufacturing of George™.

In late 2008, Chestnut Hill Sound discussed with Apple the benefits of Chestnut Hill Sound's patent pending technologies. Shortly thereafter, Apple submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office certain of Chestnut Hill Sound's patent applications as prior art to some of its own pending patent applications.

At no point during its meetings and discussions with Apple did Chestnut Hill Sound grant Apple a license to Chestnut Hill Sound's intellectual property, including trade secrets and its then pending patent applications. Chestnut Hill Sound never signed or agreed to any covenant not to enforce Chestnut Hill Sound's intellectual property against Apple.

Chestnut Hill Sound's patents and patent applications were cited as prior art during the prosecution of numerous patents owned by Apple, including for example, U.S. Patent Nos. 8,315,555; 8,986,029; 7,567,777; 7,702,279; 8,041,300; 8,280,465; 8,369,785; 8,478,913; and 8,762,605.

The patents-in-suit generally cover a method of using a media device as a remote control in two modes. The first mode is a method to select and play content on the media device itself. The second mode is a method to use the media device to control a remote media source, either by selecting and playing content on the device being controlled, or by using the media device to request content from a remote source on the Internet and send that content to an output device that is not the media device.

Apple has committed and continues to commit acts of infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271 (i) with any version of numerous Apple hardware products (including, for example,, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5C, iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3rd Generation, iPad 4th Generation, iPad mini, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPod Touch 1st generation, iPod Touch 2nd generation, iPod Touch 3rd generation, iPod Touch 4th generation, and iPod Touch 5th generation, and any later models); (ii) with any version of Apple's iTunes media server when used in combination with Apple's hardware products (e.g., the products listed in (i)); (iii) with Apple's Remote app for iTunes; and (iv) with any version of Apple's iRadio server when used in combination with Apple's hardware products. 

In committing these acts of infringement, Apple acted despite an objectively high likelihood that its actions constituted infringement of at least one valid and enforceable patent, and Apple knew or should have known that its actions constituted an unjustifiably high risk of infringement of at least one valid and enforceable patent.

The two specific patents that Apple allegedly infringes include U.S. patent 8,090,309 (the "'309 patent") entitled "Entertainment System with Unified Content Selection," and U.S. Patent No. 8,725,063 (the "'063 patent") entitled "Multi-Mode Media Device Using Metadata to Access Media Content."

Chestnut Hill Sound is looking for an injunction against Apple's products that infringe their noted patents. In the event a permanent injunction preventing future acts of infringement is not granted, Chestnut Hill Sound is requesting that an order requiring Apple to pay to Plaintiff an ongoing royalty for its continued infringement with periodic accountings has been requested.

The patent infringement case presented in today's report was filed in the Delaware District Court. At present, no Judge has been assigned to the case.

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