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Up until the end of 2001, the partnership with Westone worked fine. Ultimate Ears continued to grow by adding some 200 artists, including theatrical productions like Cirque du Soleil, television shows like the Late Show With David Letterman, and large houses of worship like the Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas. ("Churches were an unknown market, but some of them have $200,000 sound systems and spend money like rock bands," says Mindy.) The Harveys assumed they had done everything right by outsourcing the manufacturing and accruing no debt.

Unfortunately, Jerry was soon forced to retire from mixing the big rock shows when he discovered Ultimate Ears just might be running with the devil.⁶

If VH1 were to do a Behind the Music about Ultimate Ears, the first seven years would be its meteoric rise to stardom and 2002 would be when it all came crashing down. It wasn't sex, drugs, or mainlining Jack Daniels⁷ that brought the company to the brink, but rather the nefarious problems of intellectual property battles.

At some point in 2001, the relationship between Ultimate Ears and Westone soured. Jerry says Westone had begun claiming the custom designs as its own; he heard through the touring grapevine that Westone was trying to set up separate European distribution. Mindy visited Westone with an attorney and was told that Westone owned all trademarks and patents associated with Ultimate Ears. One thing was certain: Jerry had no patent protection. (He's since rectified that; he holds three patents and has applied for 10 more.)

The recollections of rock-business lifers tend to be…shaky, and Jerry has been known to take the same scorched-earth approach to business affairs as the members of Van Halen. So not everyone agrees with Jerry's version of events, which is basically that he trusted Westone and the people there ripped him off. Lynn Kehler, president of Westone, says his company and Ultimate Ears co-developed the UE-5. "We are a straight and narrow company with a stellar reputation going back to 1959," says Kehler. "I don't agree with Jerry's remarks, but challenging them to set the record straight is unproductive."

Jerry's instinct after the Westone crisis was to take total control by building the products himself. There was a major rub, though: He had always designed the interior circuitry of the monitors, but he had no clue how to make the acrylic shells. Oh, and Westone had all the rock star impressions. Needless to say, it's yeoman's work getting dudes like Scott Weiland⁸ to come in and sit still for a fitting.

Mindy's conservative business acumen called for finding a new manufacturing partner, but Jerry didn't think a new manufacturer could handle the intricate technological advances he envisioned for the next model. He wanted Ultimate Ears to have its own lab, and he told Mindy he needed $5,000 for a trip to Florida to research hearing aid manufacturing. It was the biggest fight the Harveys ever had, marriage included. "My fear was that we would spend all of our resources, put our houses up, and I would get stuck with the responsibility of running a manufacturing plant with no experience," Mindy says. She acquiesced on one condition: that Jerry retire from touring (more on that in a bit) and commit full-time to running the lab.

Jerry agreed. "We would have been out of business in 60 days because our relationship with Westone was so deteriorated," he says. "It was do-or-die time."

Right now, hey, it's your tomorrow.⁹

Jerry spent two weeks in a hearing aid crash course in Orlando, where he stumbled upon his secret weapon, Chomphorn "Noy" Soudaly, a hearing aid technician from Laos who was one of the instructors. Without consulting his partner, Jerry hired Noy at double his salary to help build, staff, and run the lab they planned on setting up in Las Vegas. "With Mindy it's always better to ask for forgiveness than permission," Jerry says.

The Harveys kept the Ultimate Ears offices in Mindy's home and leased space for a lab. Jerry gave himself three months to turn Ultimate Ears into an earpiece manufacturer. "Noy and I had 100 days of hell," says Jerry. They worked 16 hours a day in research and development while simultaneously fulfilling orders, attempting to perfect the new models before the official launch date of April 4, 2002. The upgraded earpieces shipped on time.

Ultimate Ears was up and running, but there were still the legal wranglings with Westone. Eventually, the parties settled out of court. Ultimate Ears won a small royalty fee, but most important, Jerry and Mindy walked away with the brand intact. "It was a fight we had to win because we had worked so hard to build the brand," says Jerry. "Ultimate Ears is me."

In the interim, Mindy went about cajoling and explaining the situation to their renowned customers when they would call in for repairs or new earpieces. She told the rock stars that Ultimate Ears was now on its own and that if they wanted Jerry's handiwork, they had to either call Westone to get back their ear impressions or let Ultimate Ears send out an audiologist to get a new one. About 90 percent of the artists remained loyal to the Harveys. "They were all rooting for us because they consider Jerry one of their own," says Mindy. "Guys like Gene Simmons loved the idea of us as rebellious outsider entrepreneurs."

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