The patent war between Sonos and Google has just turned to the advantage of the latter, which immediately restored certain incriminated functions.
For several years now, Sonos has been waging a legal battle against the giant Google, the former accusing the latter of illegally using patents belonging to it. At the start of the year, a court decision forced Google to deactivate a function allowing control of several grouped devices. Recently, this same decision was overturned.
Google vs Sonos: Google advantage!
Indeed, Judge William Alsup decided to reject the validity of the two Sonos patents in question, both filed in 2019, but linked to previous patents, which date back to 2006. According to the federal court, Sonos and Google shared a product project in 2014, before Google decided to go it alone the following year.
“ Sonos waited until 2019 to issue claims on the invention, and until 2020 to integrate it into its own products “, says Judge Alsup, who describes Sonos as ” an inventor came out of the shadows to claim to have had the idea first “.
The device grouping function is already back!
Also, Google did not wait to restore the grouping function of its devices, deactivated a few months ago. The latter is currently being (re)deployed on Android. The other functionality questioned by Sonos, namely controlling the volume of a group of several devices, is however no longer available.
“ Sonos has been waging a deceptive campaign against the useful features of our Google Home devices and smart speakers for years, citing spurious patents », Indicates Google in a blog post.
The American giant also confirms that a federal court has rendered a firm decision in favor of its products, rejecting two of Sonos’ patents, relying on previous decisions which invalidated the claims of two other patents of the brand.
“ This decision shows the weakness of a central element of Sonos’ campaign », Indicates Google, which points the finger at Sonos, accusing it of wasting time and resources.
Source : The Verge
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