The US International Trade Commission awake with sleeps’ claims that Google had infringed its speaker patents and released. It issued its initial ruling in August, and that finalizes its ruling, which bans Google from importing products that violate Sonos’ intellectual property. As Google manufactures its products in China, that means it won’t be able to ship them to the US when the import ban goes into effect within 60 days.
Sonos sued Google in 2020 for five patents, which include one that details technology that allows wireless speakers to sync with each other. Like The New York Times notes, affected products include Google Home Smart Speakers, Pixel phones and computers, as well as Chromecast devices. As Google faces an import ban, a spokesman said the tech giant doesn’t expect the decision to interrupt its ability to import and sell devices.
“While we disagree with today’s decision, we are grateful that the International Trade Commission has approved our modified projects,” said the spokesperson. Protocol. “We will seek further review and continue to defend against Sonos’ frivolous claims about our partnership and intellectual property.” The commission did not challenge these alternative designs in its final decision, which means Google can implement them.
In fact, the Nest team recently announced some changes in the speaker groups, which it says is “due to a recent legal decision”. The most notable change is that, going forward, users will no longer be able to adjust the volume of all speakers in a group at once. They would have to adjust each speaker individually.
In a statement, Sonos General Counsel Eddie Lazarus admitted that the possibility exists that “Google will be able to degrade or eliminate product features in a way that bypasses the import ban that the ITC has imposed.” However, he said the tech giant’s products still “will infringe on many dozens of Sonos’s patents” — that is, unless Google pays Sonos royalties for its technologies.
Your entire statement says:
“We are grateful that the ITC has definitively validated the five Sonos patents at issue in this case and has decided unequivocally that Google infringes all five. This is an overall victory that is extremely rare in patent cases and underscores the strength of Sonos’ extensive patent portfolio and the hollowness of Google’s copy denials. These Sonos patents cover Sonos’ innovative invention of extremely popular home audio features, including setup to control home audio systems, multi-speaker sync, independent volume control of different speakers, and stereo pairing of speakers.
The possibility exists that Google may be able to degrade or eliminate product features in a way that bypasses the import ban that the ITC has imposed. But while Google may sacrifice the consumer experience in trying to circumvent this import ban, its products will still infringe many dozens of Sonos’s patents, its wrongdoings will persist, and the damages owed to Sonos will continue to pile up. Alternatively, Google can – as other companies have done – pay fair royalties for technologies it misappropriated.”
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in gadget.