Sonos files another lawsuit against Google for infringing five more speaker patents

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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). 

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Microsoft's Panos Panay joins Sonos' board of directors

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Panos Panay, Microsoft's chief product officer, has recently been appointed to Sonos' board of directors. Chairman Mike Volpi announced Panay's appointment as part of the premium audio hardware maker's board. He said in a press release, "Panay's comprehensive background in developing tightly-integrated hardware and software platforms, coupled with a track record of innovation in product design and development, makes him an exciting addition to the Sonos board."

As The Verge points out, the optics might be a bit weird from Panay's perspective. Microsoft seems to be in good standing with Google recently, with the company close to releasing a Microsoft-branded, Android 10-powered smartphone in the Surface Duo. Meanwhile, Google and Sonos are still in the midst of a legal battle over accusations that Google stole its smart speaker tech. Those issues aside, Panay will be bringing years of expertise when it comes to hardware to Sonos.

Google countersues Sonos, citing patent infringement

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Google fights back against Sonos and countersues the company for patent infringement. The tech giant claims Sonos is infringing five Google patents that involve mesh networking, echo cancellation, DRM, content notifications, and personalized search. Sonos initially filed a patent lawsuit against Google in January. This ongoing row has already resorted to a US International Trade Commission investigation.

The Verge says the lawsuit serves a couple of purposes: one is to countersue Sonos, and another is for the tech giant to show that it feels aggrieved after assisting Sonos with its product development.

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Sonos speakers can now be default playback options for Google Assistant

Even with an ongoing patent infringement lawsuit between the two companies, Sonos and Google are working on new features to benefit its users. You can now use Sonos speakers as the default playback option for Google Assistant. So, if you request a song through Google Assistant, it can automatically play on the paired Sonos speaker. Google Assistant will let you have multiple default speakers, so different Sonos devices can be paired with different Google devices. You can set this up through the Google Home app.

Source: The Verge