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Tue Sep 20, 2016 01:45AM
Rap icon Dr. Dre and his Beats Electronics co-founder Jimmy Iovine are heading back to court over a royalties dispute.Former hedgefund manager Steven Lamar claims he played a key role early on in the firm´s existence by introducing Dre and Iovine to celebrated industrial designer Robert Brunner, who was brought on board to help develop the popular design of their early headphone line, and securing funding from investors.
However, the stars sued Lamar in 2006 amid a contract issue, and accused him and his associates of planning to launch their own Beats audio products without Dre´s involvement, reports Billboard.com.
The two parties subsequently reached a settlement, which granted Lamar a four per cent royalty on the original headphones, but when he tried to claim additional compensation for alternate designs last year (15), his claim was shut down by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.
Lamar challenged the decision and took his case to a California appeals court, where an official overturned the ruling, stating the royalty agreement was "ambiguous" enough to revive the dispute with a jury trial.
Dre and music label executive Iovine sold the Beats brand to Apple bosses in 2014, securing a whopping $3 billion for the company.