Dive Brief:

• Apple Inc. is breaking up with audio tech company Monster, which until now was licensed to make certified accessories for Apple devices, according to an attorney for Monster.

• The move comes amidst Monster’s lawsuit against Apple and Beats Electronics, which was acquired by Apple last year for $3 billion. 

• In the suit, filed in January, Monster maintains that its engineers invented the technology underpinning Beats headphones, and that Jimmy Iovine and Andre Romelle Young, (known by the stage name Dr. Dre), essentially cut Monster out from the windfall of being acquired by Apple by severing ties with Monster just ahead of the deal.

Dive Insight:

As we noted in January when Monster filed its suit, Monster spent millions on the development of the now-iconic Beats by Dre headphones and was generally responsible for much of the most expensive aspects of the Beats by Dre business, due in part to decisions and agreements made by inventor and Monster CEO Noel Lee’s son Kevin Lee. Those agreements, as documented by Gizmodo last year, may have been unwise. 

But Apple has the muscle to make the pain of those ill-advised agreements worse (though it hasn’t commented on this move or the pending lawsuit), and it appears to be flexing it. Apple is allowing Monster to sell Apple-licensed accessories through September, but the audio company must stop manufacturing new ones, Monster says. This is surely bad news for Monster’s business, and it’s not clear whether the company has much recourse.

“It shows a side of Apple that consumers don’t see very often,” Monster attorney David Tognotti told the Wall Street Journal. “Apple can be a bully.”