Google must face Sonos patent lawsuit, says California judge
(Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google received a mixed ruling from a San Francisco federal judge on Thursday in a patent lawsuit filed by Sonos Inc over wireless audio technology, saying it did not invalidate all patents before trial but narrowed Sonos’ claims.
The case, set for trial on May 8, is part of a contentious intellectual property dispute between the former business partners over their smart speakers, which includes lawsuits in the United States, Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Sonos won a limited import ban on some Google devices from the US International Trade Commission (ITC) last year, while Google has sued Sonos for patent infringement in the ITC and California.
Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement that the company appreciated the decision to invalidate one of Sonos’ patents and that Sonos “misrepresented our partnership and mischaracterized our technology.”
A Sonos spokesperson said in a statement that the company expects to “once again demonstrate widespread infringement by Google” in the lawsuit.
Sonos said Google stole its technology for use in products like Chromecast Audio and Google Home after working together to integrate Google’s streaming music service into the Sonos ecosystem. Google has objected to Sonos copying its technology after the collaboration.
Sonos accused Google in the San Francisco case of infringing four patents related to multi-room wireless speaker technology. U.S. District Judge William Alsup previously invalidated one of the patents, finding that Google infringed the other.
Alsup ruled Thursday that the second Sonos patent was also invalid, but rejected Google’s request to revoke the other two patents before trial. The judge also said that Google did not willfully infringe one of the surviving patents, reducing Sonos’ potential damages.
Alsup also said he will hold a separate pretrial hearing after the jury trial to determine whether Google’s revamped speakers infringe on Sonos’ patents.
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