Google infringed Sonos smart speaker patents for its multi-zone speaker technology, says the United States or US trade agency, affirming a previous court ruling.
This illustration picture shows the US multinational technology and Internet-related services company Google logo displayed on a tablet in Paris on February 18, 2019.
Google Infringe Sonos Smart Speaker Patents
According to the report by CNET, the United States International Trade Commission published a PDF, which issued an importation ban on Google.
It affirmed a previous court ruling, saying that Google has copied some of the patents that Sonos rightfully owns.
However, the judge's decision did not affect the consumers of the Google products that have allegedly infringed the patents of Sonos as the search engine tech giant made a couple of modifications afterward.
It is worth noting that Sonos brought Google to court way back in Jan. 2020, which boldly asserts that the latter stole the technology of the former.
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The audio company further claimed that Google has infringed on a total of five patents that it owns, which features like allowing its users to listen to music in various rooms simultaneously.
Google, Pixel Devices To Be Banned?
As such, the US trade agency is set to ban Google from importing some of its devices that sport a similar technology that the Sonos has a patent on.
As per a news story by The Verge, Sonos sent a list of the Google products, which are affected by the latest ruling of the trade agency.
The list from Sonos claimed that it included the home devices of Google, such as the Nest Mini, Chromecast, Nest Hub. What's more, Pixel products are also part of the list, including the Pixel 3, Pixel 4, and PixelBook Go.
But Google clarified that its customers will still get to enjoy the said products, despite the latest ruling. It comes as the ban will still take place after 60 days. Thus, the search engine will apply the required changes to avoid any "disruption."
Sonos vs. Google
CNET said in the same report that Sonos said that the latest ruling of the US trade agency is an "across the board win" for them.
On top of that, Sonos said in its statement that Google will have to sacrifice the experience of the users of its devices to avoid the latest importation ban.
However, the audio firm added that "its products will still infringe many dozens of Sonos patents." It further claimed that Google's "wrongdoing will persist, and the damages owed Sonos will continue to accrue."
On the other hand, the spokesperson of Google, Jose Castaneda, said that: "We will seek further review and continue to defend ourselves against Sonos' frivolous claims about our partnership and intellectual property."
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Written by Teejay Boris
