Sonos has launched another patent-related lawsuit aimed at Google, claiming that the search giant uses its multi-room functionality in the company’s Google and Nest smart speakers.
Sonos first took legal action against Google during CES in January of 2020 over a handful of multi-room audio patents, including how to set up a playback device on a wireless local area network, how to manage and control groups of playback devices, and many more.
Since then, the International Trade Commission has been looking into pulling Google’s infringing products from the market as the companies battle it out in the courtroom. Sonos knows this courtroom battle is going to likely last upwards of two years, according to The Verge’s report, but that’s not stopping the company from launching even more patent infringing suits.
The new suit is filed in the western district of Texas, which is a hotbed for patent suits, and it focuses on five different patents, including one regarding music playback while being controlled from a phone and another based on the Sonos’ Trueplay tuning software.
Sonos stated in an email to MobileSyrup that “this lawsuit illustrates the depth and breadth of our intellectual property as well as our continued innovation, and indicates the degree to which we believe Google has copied our innovations.”
Sonos is in for quite a fight as Google moves aggressively into the home audio space with its Nest products. Even if Sonos manages to beat Google, it still has Amazon and other tech giants to fight since they’re all releasing similar multi-room audio products.
We’re living in a weird time where big tech companies often adopt ideas from smaller independent firms. There is part of me that wants to see Sonos win this lawsuit since that would also be a win for several other smaller companies that have been usurped by Google, Amazon or Apple. That said, I’m also worried it may slow the rapid pace at which smart speakers and their software are improving.
Source: The Verge
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