Apple Inc Cuts Off Monster From Its 'Made For iPhone' Licensed Accessory Program

Apple is no longer permitting Monster to make accessories for its devices. This comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Monster in January against Apple’s Beats Electronics, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Monster had previously produced headphones, earbuds and lighting cables that were certified to be compatible with Apple’s iPhones under the “Made for iPhone” (MFi) program. But as of May 5, the agreement between the two parties was terminated. Monster will be able to sell the rest of its current inventory of Apple licensed accessories until September. However, it is no longer allowed to make new ones. Up until the change, Monster had steadily paid Apple over $12 million in licensing fees, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Monster’s suit against Beats Electronics was launched in January, accusing Beats co-founders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine as well as HTC of cutting it out of control of the Beats by Dre headphones. Monster alleged that HTC in 2011 bought a 51 percent stake in Beats worth $309 million to force a change of ownership, according to Reuters. The company had designed and sold Beats headphones prior to the HTC deal, well before Apple acquired Beats Electronics in 2014 for $3.2 billion.

As a result of the agreement, Monster will have to remove all references to MFi certification and will have to redesign some of its products to avoid using the technology it licensed from Apple.

This isn’t the first time Apple has clashed with accessory manufacturers. Following a lawsuit filed by Bose Corporation in 2014 against Beats Electronics accusing it of infringing on its noise-canceling patents, Apple pulled Bose’s products from Apple Store shelves. Bose and Beats Electronics quickly settled the matter out of court in October. But it took two months before Apple Stores began carrying Bose products again.