(Credit: Monoprice)
Reviewers have fawned over surround-sound speakers from Energy, a unit of the Klipsch Group.
Two years ago, CNET's Matt Moskovciak dubbed the Energy Take Classic 5.1 system "the best budget speaker system we've reviewed." The sound from the speakers is incredible, he wrote, and the $399 price tag unbeatable.
It was, anyway. A few months ago, upstart online retailer Monoprice debuted its 5.1 Hi-Fi Home Theater Satellite Speakers & Subwoofer system at $249. The speakers aren't just similar to the Energy system, and they don't just have the same dimensions and sound quality. Other than the logos, the two systems are virtually indistinguishable.
"Nearly everything -- from the finish, to the placement of the drivers, to the positioning of the speaker connectors -- is identical," Moskovciak wrote in a February review. Everything, that is, except the price.
Cue the lawyers. On March 15, Klipsch and its subsidiary, Audio Products International, which makes speakers under the Energy brand, filed a suit against Monoprice in federal court in the Southern District of Indiana, accusing the retailer of patent infringement. In a recent interview, Monoprice CEO Ajay Kumar, interview... [Read more]
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