Sonos files another lawsuit against Google for infringing five more speaker patents
Wednesday, September 30, 2020 at 8:05AM A day before Google's hardware event where the new Nest Audio might be launched, Sonos has filed another lawsuit against the search giant. The company claims Google infringed on five more patents, including patents that cover technologies some of Sonos' best-known features are based on (including the Trueplay tuning tool). This new lawsuit is more about modern wireless speaker system features, which seem to focus on smart speaker control (like setting the volume on a speaker from your phone).
Eddie Lazarus, Sonos' chief legal officer, is confident that the company can beat Google, even if they challenge the claims.
"If they seek to challenge the patents on obviousness grounds, we believe we will win," he said. "We believe that most people involved in wireless home audio today infringe on our patents in one way or the other."
Lazarus says Sonos has also presented Amazon with similar patent claims it showed Google, hoping to resolve them. He said, "We were ahead of our time. These technologies weren't commonplace when Sonos designed them."
While this new lawsuit can further strain the companies' relationship, Sonos has tried to keep the legal issue out of product discussions.
"The goal is to have a positive relationship with Google, one in which they recognize the value of our inventions and we work on consumer-friendly innovations in the future," says Lazarus. "We've tried to keep the two sides of the house separate."
Sonos first filed its lawsuit at the start of the year, with Google countersuing in June. Sonos claimed Google violated five of its speaker patents, including one that details a tech that lets wireless speakers sync with one another. Google claimed the speaker maker has been using its search, software, as well as networking and audio processing tech without paying a licensing fee.
Reader Comments