Smart speaker company Sonos sued Google for “blatantly” stealing its technology for Google Home

While the tech industry is focusing its attention on Las Vegas with the CES 2020 tech show, Sonos, a company specializing in home technology products such as smart speakers and audio products, has filed a lawsuit. Google for patent infringement.

According to the New York Times, Sonos sued Google for stealing Sonos technology and putting it on the Google Home smart speaker line. Previously the two had a cooperative relationship in 2013.

At that time, Google has not started producing smart speakers yet. Meanwhile, Sonos has started producing smart speakers and brought suggestions to Google. Under the partnership agreement, Google will provide Google Play Music service on Sonos smart speaker products.

Starting from that point, Google began to realize the idea of ​​launching a smart speaker product with model Nest Mini. However, according to Sonos, Google has intentionally used Sonos’ technology for devices like Chromecast Audio and later Google Home and Pixel smartphones.

In addition, Sonos also accused Google of subsidizing the sale of smart speaker products at cheaper prices than the majority of the market in order to attract customers and unfair competition.

With the latest lawsuit, Sonos not only wants Google to pay damages, but also wants the International Trade Commission to issue a ban on the sale of some products that infringe Sonos patents.

Sonos accused Google of infringing on about 100 of its patents. In particular, Sonos confirmed that it holds a lot of good evidence about the combination of its products and Google.

The New York Times reported that Sonos has repeatedly reminded Google of copyright infringement since 2016, but Google continues to relapse. As a result, Sonos was forced to bring Google to court to distinguish black and white.

Sonos CEO Patrick Spence emphasized that Google has not been cooperating in resolving patent infringement issues for years.

Spence said: “Google is an important partner that we have successfully cooperated with for many years, including bringing Google Assistant to the Sonos platform last year. However, Google has flagrantly copied it. technology and patents related to audio products.In spite of our relentless efforts over the years, Google has not shown a partnership to come up with a solution that is beneficial to We have no choice but to protect our inventions and customers. “

Answering the Mashable page about the lawsuit, a Google representative said: “Over the years, we have had many conversations with Sonos about the intellectual property rights between the two companies. But we are really disappointed. when Sonos decided to sue instead of continuing in good faith “.

It is worth mentioning that Sonos also has a discord with both Amazon for the same reason. But it only decided to sue Google for fear it would not be able to cover the costs of both cases. In addition, not targeting Amazon is also a smart way because if Amazon offends, Sonos smart speaker sales on the Amazon e-commerce site will certainly plummet.

Consult the New York Times