San Francisco, NFAPost: US International Trade Commission has found that Google infringed on five patents after speaker company Sonos filed a case against the tech giant.
A preliminary ruling penned by ITC chief administrative law judge Charles Bullock finds that Google infringed on five patents.
According to a TechCrunch report quoting Sonos Chief Legal Officer Eddie Lazaru states that the ALJ has found all five of Sonos’ asserted patents to be valid and that Google infringes on all five patents.
“We are pleased the ITC has confirmed Google’s blatant infringement of Sonos’ patented inventions. This decision re-affirms the strength and breadth of our portfolio, marking a promising milestone in our long-term pursuit to defend our innovation against misappropriation by Big Tech monopolies,” said Sonos Chief Legal Officer Eddie Lazaru.\
Sonos’ complaint stems from Google’s own family of streaming speakers. Google entered the category, long dominated by Sonos, roughly four and a half years ago with the original Home speaker. The line now includes a number of products now listed under the Nest banner.
Sonos noted similar issues with Amazon devices (Google’s chief competitor in the category) at the time, but the company opted to focus its time, money and resources on a battle with Google, instead.
According to analyst, Sonos is ultimately hoping to use the ITC to block the import of those smart speakers, along with other Google hardware, including the Chromecast and Pixels.
“If that happens it would be a massive hit to Google’s hardware ambitions. A final ruling isn’t expected until December 13, however, after which point a potential import ban would take 60 days to go into effect,” states analyst.
