Commercial Integrator March 2021 - 7

ClearOne Defeats Shure's Preliminary Injunction
Motion on Beamforming Mic Array
Shure filed a motion for a
BMA CT in February 2019 and
announced its COLLABORATE
Versa Pro CT in November
2019 and started selling it in
December 2019. COLLABORATE
combines the BMA CTH
with the CONVERGE Huddle
audio DSP for small- to medium-sized
rooms.
In February 2020, ClearOne
announced the COLLABORATE
Versa Room CT and COLLABORATE
Versa Lite CT product
offerings, which require no
external DSP.
temporary restraining order
in April 2019 to stop sales of
ClearOne's BMA CTH products,
but that motion was
denied when Judge Christopher
J. Burke ruled Shure " had
failed to show that it would
suffer irreparable harm in the
absence of injunctive relief
and that ClearOne had raised
a 'substantial question' as to
the validity of the patent Shure
asserts against ClearOne. "
After hearing testimony in
September, 2020, Burke issued
his denial on Jan. 20, 2021.
In Burke's ruling, he again
held that ClearOne raised a
" substantial question " as to
the validity of the '723 patent,
and additionally found that
Shure did not meet its burden
to prove the irreparable harm
needed to obtain preliminary
injunctive relief. On Feb. 8,
Andrews adopted Burke's
ClearOne and Shure are battling in court about the patent
behind beamforming microphone array technology.
report and recommendation
and held that Shure's " motion
for a preliminary injunction is
DENIED. "
" This is another victory for
ClearOne against Shure's retaliatory
litigation in Delaware, "
said ClearOne chair and CEO
Zee Hakimoglu in the company
announcement.
PSNI Global Alliance Certified Solution Providers Claim
'Best Place to Work' Honor
PSNI GLOBAL ALLIANCE has
awarded The AV Company
and SKS Technologies with the
organization's Best Places to
Work in AV accolade, based off
metrics from the PSNI-exclusive
Employee Engagement Survey.
The AV Company, based in
Hawaii, claimed the accolade
for companies with less than
50 employees while Australian-based
integrator SKS Technologies
took the award in the
over-50 employees category.
" Trust, communication and
teamwork key to our success, "
said Thomas Lee, president at
commercialintegrator.com
The AV Company, in the PSNI
Global Alliance announcement.
" Keeping everyone informed
and engaged from the topdown
removes uncertainty and
mistrust.
" If we succeed, we all succeed
together. The funny this is,
we can all still laugh when we
fall, but most of all, learn from
our mistakes, " he said.
The PSNI internal Employee
Engagement survey focused
on three objectives to obtain its
results: levels of employee engagement
within the network,
identifying work attributes that
are most responsible for driving
employee engagement, plus
understanding employee perceptions
in areas such as leadership,
work relationships, culture,
growth and opportunity.
" There are many factors that
make a successful business, but
none more important than its
people, " said PSNI Global Alliance
executive director Chris
Miller in the announcement.
" The AV Company and SKS
Technologies have thoroughly
demonstrated their effectiveness
in helping employees
continue to feel connected to
the organization to keep their
engagement strong, " said
Miller.
MARCH 2021 Commercial Integrator
7
JUDGE RICHARD G. ANDREWS
of the U.S. District Court of Delaware
recently issued a report
and recommendation denying
Shure Incorporated's motion
for a preliminary injunction to
stop the sale of ClearOne's
beamforming mic array ceiling
tile ( " BMA CT " ) and Huddle-compatible
beamforming
mic array ceiling tile products.
ClearOne launched its
http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator March 2021

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