Strategy in TECH...
A couple of interesting announcements this week from Premium Audio Company (PAC), the Voxx Int’l subsidiary that markets the company’s premier audio brands such as Klipsch, Onkyo, Integra, Jamo, Pioneer, Elite, and more. First up, Rob Standley gets a big promotion to President of Technology and Product, a big step up. Second, and I would say counter-intuitively, the company says it’s lowering prices on many of its “most popular and best-selling audio solutions.”
On Monday, Premium Audio Company (PAC) announced the launch of the Onkyo TX-RZ70, a flagship audio-video receiver that the company says provides “stellar audio performance” along with “studio-level processing.” As a “flagship,” by definition, this model is at the top of the Onkyo AVR line-up and is being launched just three-and-a-half weeks after the launch of Integra’s flagship model, the DRX-8.4.
This week we learned that 11 Trading Company…part of Premium Audio Company…which itself is part of Voxx International (love those big corporate structures), has added the only remaining Onkyo brands – Teac & Esoteric – to their distribution line list. They did not include these brands in the original announcement of their agreement with Onkyo, but most people expected it to be added in time. With this new development we get a nice progression of the budding relationship between the companies – Voxx distributing Onkyo, Integra, Pioneer, Pioneer Elite, Teac & Esoteric – while Onkyo Corp. becomes the Klipsch distributor in Japan. Where could this be heading?
Earlier this year, we reported on a trademark infringement suit filed by Signeo USA, LLC, vs. Sol Republic. Signeo is the corporate name for a company better known in the trade as the Soul by Ludacris brand of headphones. Sol Republic denied Signeo’s allegations and filed a counter-suit suggesting, amongst other things, that Signeo’s trademark application was improper. Signeo also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, seeking a court order to stop the sales of Sol Republic products.
<March 14, 2012> Over the last few weeks, we have reported on a trademark and unfair business practices lawsuit filed by Signeo, the parent company of Soul by Ludacris, against Sol Republic. In its original filing, Signeo alleged that Sol Republic deliberately selected the SOL mark used on their headphone products in order to confuse the marketplace with a name that is phonetically identical to the SOUL trademark used by Signeo on its headphones. [Read more…] about Agreeing with Soul by Ludacris, Judge Orders PRO Group To Testify Now
<February 29, 2012> New court documents filed late last week as part of the ongoing lawsuit 
between Soul by Ludacris and SOL Republic appear to more deeply entangle one of our industry’s most prominent national retail buying organizations, the Pro Group. Court filings from both sides have ignited a controversy in which certain Pro Group members appear to make a claim that is contradictory to one by the Pro Group Executive Director David Workman. [Read more…] about Pro Group Pulled into Lawsuit
<February 22, 2012> Dealerscope reported on its website today that Signeo, the company that markets primarily headphone products under the brand Soul by Ludacris or “Soul,” has filed a trademark lawsuit against Sol Republic, Inc. who markets primarily headphone products under the brand “Sol.” At the root of the case is consumer confusion over the marketing of competing products that are similar in design and price containing one word brands…that are pronounced phonetically to sound identical. [Read more…] about Can a Court Decide Who Has Soul…or Sol? We’re Going to Find Out
