Google sues Sonos over smart speaker and voice control technology

Google has responded to Sonos with a lawsuit alleging that the wireless speaker company is infringing on a number of its patents about smart speakers and voice control technology. It’s the latest blow in a back-and-forth battle over wireless speakers that has so far included multiple Sonos lawsuits, one Google lawsuit, and one ruling in favor of Sonos that has stripped features from Google products.

These new lawsuits allege infringement of seven additional patents. One lawsuit focuses on important word detection and wireless charging, while the other is about how a group of speakers determines which of them should respond to voice input.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said lawsuits are being brought “to defend our technology and challenge Sonos’ clear and ongoing infringement of our patents.” Castaneda said Sonos “began an aggressive and misleading campaign against our products, to the detriment of our mutual customers.”

The two lawsuits were filed this morning in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Castaneda said Google plans to file similar lawsuits with the US International Trade Commission in the coming days that will seek to ban the import of any of the offending Sonos products. the edge.

The legal skirmish began in 2020 when Sonos sued Google initially on multiroom speaker technology. The two companies partnered years ago to get Google services to work on Sonos speakers, and Sonos claimed that Google continued to steal its speaker technology to build the Google Home and other devices. The Google I’m back after monthsSonos allegedly infringed on a number of its patents as well. then File a lawsuit against Sonos again. Finally, in January – two years after the first lawsuit was filed – the US International Trade Commission Ruled for SonosGoogle found in violation of Sonos patents.

In response, Google had to modify the features of some of its products. This included Google remove ability To adjust the volume of a group of speakers simultaneously – a very annoying change for owners of multiple Google speakers. Today’s lawsuits appear to be an attempt by Google to gain leverage over Sonos as the two battle over features.