Google fined $32.5 million for Sonos patent infringement

ABOUT Google he was fined $32.5 million for infringing a patent owned by Only we. According to Law360, a federal jury in California handed down the fine after it ruled that Google infringed a Sonos patent related to grouping speakers to play sound simultaneously, something the company has been doing for years.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup previously ruled that older versions of products such as Chromecast Audio And Google Home infringed a Sonos patent; the question was whether new, redesigned products infringe the patent. The jury ruled in favor of Sonos, but found that a second patent relating to controlling devices via a smartphone or other device was not infringed. They argued that Sonos had not convincingly demonstrated that the Google Home app infringed on that particular patent. This comes after a lawsuit filed for four other patent infringements that Sonos had originally sued.

In an interview with Engadget, Google stated that “this competition is limited to very specific features that are not commonly used. Of the six patents originally claimed by Sonos, only one was found to be infringed, with the rest found to be invalid or non-infringing. We have always developed technologies independently and competed based on our ideas. We are considering our next steps“.

Sonos replied that “We are deeply grateful to the jury for their time and diligence in validating our patents and recognizing the value of Sonos’ invention of “zonal scenes”. This verdict confirms that Google is a serial infringer of our patent portfolio as the International Trade Commission has ruled on five other Sonos patents. In total, we believe that Google is infringing on over 200 Sonos patents, and today’s losses, based on an important part of our portfolio, demonstrate the exceptional value of our intellectual property. Our goal is still to have Google pay us a fair price for the Sonos inventions it has embezzled.“.

Process launched in 2020

Last Friday’s ruling looks like a victory for Sonos, which filed a lawsuit against Google in January 2020. Specifically, Sonos said that Google became aware of the patent through a previous collaboration between the two companies where they collaborated to provide integration between Sonos and Google speakers. Play music.

Google has since filed a countersuit against Sonos, alleging that Sonos has in fact infringed its own patents related to smart speakers. As with any good lawsuit, Sonos expanded its own lawsuit a few months later. Most recently, in 2022, Google sued Sonos after finding that its new voice assistant infringed on seven Google Assistant-related patents.

It remains to be seen if today’s ruling will slow down the legal battle between the two companies, although the disputes are to be expected to continue in the coming months. There are many lawsuits between the companies that are still unresolved, and it is to be expected that Google will also appeal this decision.

Source: Law360, Engadget

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