An audio company, Sonos has dragged Google to court for allegedly copying its patented speaker technology while selling for lesser on the market.
New York Times reports that Sonos filed two lawsuits covering five patents on its wireless speaker design. The company also seeks a sales ban on Google’s laptops, phones, and speakers in the US in a separate case at the International Trade Commission.
Sonos insists it sent warnings to Google regarding the infringement severally. With the first in 2016, a few months after Google announced its Home smart speaker.
It says it repeated the warning in 2018, after the release of the Google Home Max and Home Mini. By February 2019, it already started accusing Google of infringing on 100 Sonos patents.
Sonos says there are lots of similarities between its products and google’s
The lawsuit highlights numerous similarities between Google’s speaker features and systems that Sonos had already pioneered. Including synchronizing sound across groups of speakers, adjusting the group volume, and setting up devices on a local wireless network.
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Sonos’ CEO, Patrick Spence told The Verge:
“Google is an important partner with whom we have collaborated successfully for years, including bringing the Google Assistant to the Sonos platform last year. However, Google has been blatantly and knowingly copying our patented technology in creating its audio products,”
“Despite our repeated and extensive efforts over the last few years, Google has not shown any willingness to work with us on a mutually beneficial solution.”
The list of allegedly infringing products is quite many. It includes the Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra; Nest Hub Max, and Nest Wifi Point, the Nest Mini, Nest Hub, and the Pixel phones, Pixel Slate tablet, and Pixelbook laptop. This is in addition to the Chromecast Audio and Google Home line.
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