The AV Company

Aug 21, 2023

AV Company Snap One the seller of Control 4 gear, has taken legal action against two key brands, claiming patent infringement and a range of illicit and unethical business practices, they also claim that the Companies breached contractual agreements that they had with Snap One The defendants iJosh.ai whose products are popular with custom installers, and AVA whose remotes were originally being sold by Snap One, who have been accused of stacking the price of the iJoshi.ai remote. Snap One, claims in their filings that the two defendants have partnered to circumvent actions taken to protect intellectual property. Analyst Stra Gee claims that back in February of 2019, Control4 (before it was acquired by SnapAV, who rebranded as Snap One) spent over US$10 million to acquire NEEO AG, the inventor of a slim handheld remote control known as the NEEO Remote. In acquiring NEEO, the company signed new employment contracts with several of the existing executives there, such as NEEO founder Raphael Oberholzer. Now part of Control4, a newly upgraded version of the NEEO remote was created for use in Control4 systems. According to the complaint, “Less than two years later, a core group of former NEEO leaders, then employed by Snap One, left Snap One and started a new company called AVA. Snap One claim that they leveraged their intellectual property and without Snap One’s consent, AVA developed a smart remote of its own (the ‘AVA remote’).” In 2017, Josh.ai and Snap One partnered to integrate Josh.ai’s voice control technology into the Control4 ecosystem. This involved the two parties signing a Software Development Kit License Agreement giving Josh.ai a license to use “…certain Snap One software, code, web services, application programming interfaces (“APIs”), and other development resources (collectively, the “Development Resources”) to build applications for use with its products to integrate with Control4 software,” according to the complaint. The Snap One press release claims that the AVA remote and the Josh Remote – violate five of Snap One’s patents that cover technologies including remote control, control systems, media distribution, intercom systems, and network architecture. That the defendants’ remote controls were copies of the Snap One NEEO remote that the AVA employees developed while working for Snap One. Consequently, Josh and AVA have violated additional Snap One proprietary rights including trade dress [the look and feel of the product], trade secrets, and confidential information contractual obligations. That Josh.ai breached its agreements with Snap One, including intentionally violating its exclusivity obligations in its distribution agreement with Snap One. In March 2022, Snap One they demanded that AVA stop its “improper conduct” and took action to cut the AVA remote’s ability to integrate with the Control4 home automation platform. “A few months later, AVA approached one of Snap On’s certified product development partners, Josh.ai, about a collaborative partnership.” Snap One management claim. Snap One do admit that AVA and Josh.ai “jointly developed the Josh Remote,” this has been denied by Josh.ai CEO Alex Capecelatro. He claims that the product is just an AVA Remote with the Josh.ai app preloaded and under the Josh.ai logo. The filings in a US Court reveal that Josh.ai and Snap One had a multi-tiered relationship. Not only did the Josh.ai voice control system integrate with the Control4 line, but Control4 (Snap One) had signed a Distributor Agreement to sell the Josh.ai line to Control4 dealers. This deal was signed in 2021 –before the AVA complication entered the mix. Snap One alleges their agreement with Josh.ai granted them “the exclusive right to sell certain Josh.ai products to Control4 Dealers.” The agreement required Josh.ai to refer any Control4 integrator who contacted them directly to redirect those dealers to purchase from Snap One distribution. However, the complaint alleges that Josh.ai, instead, “…breached its contractual obligations by actively marketing and selling its products to new and existing Control4 Dealers at prices that were lower than Snap One (as a reseller of the products) could offer.” By engaging in this action, the complaint alleges that Josh.ai “took advantage of Snap One’s sales and marketing efforts to acquire additional customers and left Snap One with Josh.ai products it could not sell.” Wow, this alleged activity described by the complaint by Josh.ai and AVA seems quite underhanded and not what one would expect from Josh.ai, who has a good reputation within the custom integration community. About Post Author