Netherlands-based N2IT Holding B.V. has filed a lawsuit against leading digital music technology and instrument firm M-Audio LLC for infringement of N2IT’s patented disc jockey technology.

N2IT is seeking an injunction to prevent the use, sale, marketing and offer for sale of M-Audio's product Torq Connectiv Vinyl/CD Pack. N2IT claims that M-Audio had infringed the patent N2IT holds over the technology used to develop FinalScratch (N2IT’s own disc jockey mixing hardware / software combination product) to create Torq. FinalScratch allows disc jockeys to use a special time-coded record on a record player or its equivalent to manipulate, control, and play music digital music, a concept similar to the hardware-software combination found in Torq Connectiv Vinyl/CD.

While N2IT has licensed its patented technology to other companies, N2IT’s representatives are stating that M-Audio had committed a serious and damaging offense and will likewise also sue the company for alleged past infringement. John Acquaviva, CEO of N2IT, has stated that M-Audio’s unauthorized use of their technology is irreparably harming their business. The lawsuit states that N2IT had developed, sold and marketed their highly innovative FinalScratch, a product that created a virtually non-existent market, back in 1999, and that M-Audio is selling a similar product (Torq Connective Vinyl/CD Pack) which functions the same way as FinalScratch does as described in N2IT’s patent.

According to Kurosh Nasseri, an attorney working with N2IT, N2IT had once offered to license the technology to M-Audio. However, as the talks regarding this had not been fruitful -- followed by M-Audio's release of Torq -- left N2IT little choice and filed a complaint. Jeff Boggs, a Washington, D.C., intellectual property litigation and prosecution partner with Birmingham McCutchen LLP who represents N2IT, said:

“We filed this lawsuit for one simple reason: N2IT’s property is being knowingly and unfairly exploited. Our system of rewarding inventors for their innovative ideas is jeopardized when intellectual property rights are ignored.”

The suit (N2IT Holding B.V. v. M-Audio LLC) was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk.