guitar pedals. The companies came to a confidential settlement in 2006 after Behringer changed their designs. In 2009, Peavey Electronics Corporation filed two lawsuits against various companies under the Behringer/Music Group umbrella for patent infringement, federal and common law trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution and unfair competition. In 2011 The Music Group filed a countersuit against Peavey for "false advertising, false patent marking and unfair competition." In 2017, Music Group filed a defamation lawsuit against Dave Smith Instruments, a Dave Smith Instruments engineer, and 20 Gearslutz forum users. The case was dismissed as a SLAPP lawsuit. Controversies In March 2020, Behringer published a mock video for a synthesizer, the "KIRN CorkSniffer", which appeared to mock music technology journalist and synthesiser developer Peter Kirn. The video received criticism and accusations of using antisemitic imagery. Company founder Uli Behringer issued a response on Facebook, saying the video had been intended as "pure satire by our marketing department". The apology was deleted the following day. See also List of microphone manufacturers List of studio monitor manufacturers Synthesizer clone References External links Company website FCC Notice of Apparent Liability against Behringer, February 2006 Audio amplifier manufacturers Audio equipment manufacturers of Germany Audio mixing console manufacturers Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia Companies established in 1989 Guitar amplifier manufacturers Guitar effects manufacturing companies Loudspeaker manufacturers Microphone manufacturers Music equipment manufacturers Synthesizer manufacturing companies of Germany