Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine Ordered to Pay Out $25 Million in Beats Royalties

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Jun 27, 2018

Beats co-founders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine have been ordered to pony up $25 million USD following the decision of a Los Angeles Superior Court jury over an ongoing royalties case.

The jury's decision was made today, Billboard reports, ruling that Dre and Iovine must pay out the hefty sum to Steven Lamar over royalties for the original Beats headphones.

Lamar initially filed his lawsuit against the pair in 2016 alleging breach of contract, and the jury now ruled the defendants must pay him royalties on the sales of three Beats headphone models: the Studio 2 Remastered, the Studio 2 Wireless and the Studio 3.

Iovine and Dre argued that Lamar was only entitled to royalties from the first headphone model, the initial Beats Studio make. Lamar, however, claimed he held rights to royalties on the headphones he helped propose with designs by industrial designer Robert Brunner.

And while Lamar ultimately won $25 million USD (or about $34 million CAD) today, he had been actually seeking $100 million USD in royalties.

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