Honeywell Hits Rival Thermostat Company Founded by iPod Developer with Patent Infringement Action
Honeywell filed a patent infringement lawsuit today against Nest Labs, a company founded by iPod developer Tony Fadell, which offers thermostats that automatically turn down heating and cooling when no one is home.
The complaint, filed in United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, alleges that Nest Lab infringed on seven Honeywell patents related to thermostat technology, Tech Crunch reports. Nest Labs was founded in 2011, after Fadell retired from Apple. In an earlier story, he told TechCrunch that his goal was to build an attractive, energy-efficient thermostat which was easy to use.
Honeywell’s lawsuit also names Best Buy, which sells Nest Lab thermostats, as a defendant. The seven patent infringement allegations listed in the complaint deal with simplified ways to operate and program a thermostat, according to a Honeywell press release.
