Behringer takes Boss to court over alleged patent infringement
Behringer’s parent company, Empower Tribe, is suing Boss – and its parent company Roland – alleging its use of polyphonic tuning technology in several of its products infringes upon the patent of the TC Electronic PolyTune.
Polyphonic tuning – a method by which a guitarist can play and tune multiple strings at the same time, as opposed to monophonic tuning – is used in the PolyTune by TC Electronic, another brand under the Empower Tribe umbrella.
The technology also features in a number of Boss products, including GT‑1000, GT‑1000CORE, GX‑100, and GX‑10 multi-effects pedals. Empower says this breaches its patent for the PolyTune.
Boss filed a motion to dismiss the claim on 9 October, 2025, arguing that Empower’s original patent is invalid for a number of reasons. Firstly, Boss claims the technology simply collects and displays data, meaning it was never patentable as it’s an “abstract idea” rather than a concrete technological solution.
In Boss’ motion, while the nature and right to obtain patents for new technologies is acknowledged, it points to an exception “long-held” by the US Supreme Court: “Laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas are not patentable”. Under this provision, Boss says Empower’s polyphonic tuning patent is not valid.
“Tuning is the quintessential definition of an abstract concept because musicians have been tuning stringed instruments by ear for as long as there have been stringed instruments,” Boss says. “A musician would play a note, compare it in their mind to what the note should sound like, and then adjust their instrument, repeating the process until the notes matched…
“Likewise, a musician has been tuning by ear multiple strings played at the same time allowing a person to differentiate ‘two pitch frequencies simultaneously’… Plaintiff’s opposition [Behringer/Empower] would have the Court believe that the ‘683 Patent [the PolyTune patent] invented polyphonic tuning.” Boss also says the PolyTune’s polyphonic tuning technology is achievable using generic hardware, and therefore not patentable for the same reasons that most guitar pedals aren’t patentable.
Empower has responded to this motion to dismiss with its own opposing motion, stating that Boss is “vastly oversimplifying” the technology described in the PolyTune patent in order to make its point, and overall strongly rebukes essentially all parts of Boss’ motion. In terms of the lack of an “inventive” aspect to the original patent, Empower argues that the court should at the very least undergo an “intensely factual inquiry” to determine if this is the rather than just “take [the] Defendant’s word for it”, and accept the motion to dismiss.
But why are we only hearing about this dispute now? Well, pending further ruling from the court, Boss has opted, as of March 2026, to remove the polyphonic tuner function from its GT‑1000, GT‑1000CORE, GX‑100, and GX‑10 multi-effects pedals.
This was discovered by YouTuber John Nathan Cordy, who posted a video earlier this week detailing the firmware update which removed polyphonic tuning from the above Boss pedals.
“Although [Boss parent company] Roland has developed many patented products on its own, it decided that instead of creating a polyphonic tuner itself, it would simply knock off Empower’s patented device instead,” Behringer’s initial lawsuit read [via Guitar World].
“[The] defendants have never sought or obtained a licence of the patent, and are not authorized to practice any claim of that patent,” Behringer says, adding that it contacted Roland to “reach an amicable solution”, but Roland “denied infringement” and “refused to negotiate a potential settlement”.
Many in the guitar and wider music gear community have been quick to point out that Behringer regularly produces products heavily inspired by classic pieces of gear.
This isn’t the first time Boss and Behringer have been at odds, either, after Boss sued Behringer in 2005/2006 over the trade dress (appearance) of many of its effects pedals. The suit was ultimately settled under confidential terms.
Just last year, Bill Finnegan, creator of the iconic Klon Centaur overdrive pedal, sued Behringer over its Klon copy. Behringer subsequently changed the name of its pedal from “Centaur” to “Zentara”, along with a number of visual design elements. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
Guitar.com has reached out to both Boss and Behringer for comment.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
