Interesting case. Bluetooth SIG licenses BLUETOOTH marks to entities that sell Bluetooth-compliant equipment. Mere re-sellers seem to not need to pay license fees. Defendant Fiat Chrysler utilizes audio components that themselves may be identified as Bluetooth-compliant, however Bluetooth SIG alleges that when defendant incorporates those components into the car’s system, the system itself may modify or alter the components. Thus they are not mere re-sellers and thus the system needs to be licensed to identify itself as Bluetooth-compliant.
[embeddoc url=”https://www.schwimmerlegal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/833/2018/10/bluetooth-sig-complaint-1.pdf”]