The new Nest Labs, Inc. product Nest Protect– a combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector–looks like an innovative addition to the market.  The Nest Protect is sleek looking, user friendly, and it is Wi-Fi connected so that all the Nest Protect units communicate with one another, and the Nest thermostat too.  It is designed to make assessing a danger and silencing nuisance alarms easy (a feature I would have welcomed late last night as I was jolted awake by a misbehaving smoke alarm).

It didn’t take long for Nest to find itself in the cross-hairs of industry stalwart BRK Brands, Inc.–the maker of First Alert® smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.  BRK recently filed suit against Nest in federal court in Illinois, claiming that the Nest Protect infringes on six of its patents.  Read the Complaint here:  BRK Complaint.