Sonos won its first victory over Google before the US International Trade Commission. Sonos accuses Google of infringing five patents related to the company's smart speakers. The ITC shares this view in a preliminary ruling, which is now being reviewed.
If the International Trade Commission of the USA confirms the judgment in the context of the following review, Google threatens a far-reaching ban on sales not only for smart speakers from the Google Home series and the Nest Audio (test), but also for the Pixel smartphones and Chromecast streaming -Sticks that can be connected to these smart speakers.
Insights granted to Sonos, Google is said to have copied
Sonos first reported the patent infringements in January 2020, at that time still related to the Google Home speaker, but later extended to the devices under the Nest Audio brand. It's about the way the speakers connect to music streaming services as easily as possible. Attempts to reach an agreement with Google have previously failed, according to Sonos. When Google was working on the support of Google Play Music for the Sonos loudspeakers, the company gave Google a deep insight into its own technology back in 2013, explains Sonos. Google then used these insights to copy the technology from Sonos and later integrate it into their own smart speakers, including the Google Home from 2016.
Sonos also accuses Amazon
Last year, Sonos indicated that it was also assuming that Amazon was violating its own patents with the Echo speakers, but that the legal process would initially be concentrated on Google. Sonos also stated that it feared retaliation from Google and Amazon, since music services, voice assistants, advertising and sales are now dependent on the support of the two technology companies.
Google considers judgment to be wrong
Compared to TechCrunch, Sonos & apos; Chief Legal Officer Eddie Lazarus satisfied with the recognition of the patents and the patent infringement on the part of Google by the ITC. This decision confirms Sonos in the plan to defend its own innovations against big tech monopolists. Google, on the other hand, confirmed that they are not using any Sonos technology in their own products, that they do not agree to the preliminary decision of the ITC and that they will continue to represent their own point of view in the further proceedings.
A final decision is expected on December 13, 2021. A sales ban on Google products could come into effect 60 days later.