A judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) said Google infringed on Sonos patents, but that preliminary conclusion must be considered by other judges who will confirm it or not.
Sonos a File a complaint against Google in January 2020, claiming that its competitor/partner has obtained just over 150 patents.
Five of them – the maximum allowed in an ITC complaint – served as a framework for this process. It concerns the method of assembling several speakers and synchronizing their operation; To control the volume of a single speaker or group or to create a stereo pair.
Google defended itself from any borrowing from Sonos technologies and attacked with its own complaint. Last May, a German court has already issued injunction In favor of Sonos in the same dispute but Google has appealed.
By filing a complaint with the International Trade Center, which has jurisdiction, Sonos potentially threatens Google with a ban on imports into the United States of its products made in China: Chromecast, Pixel, speakers…
However, this first decision must be analyzed by a panel of ITC judges. No earlier than December 13 and no 60-day import ban will apply, remember the The New York Times. That puts Google product sales under the hood of the holiday season.
Google isn’t the only one targeted by Sonos. The California manufacturer accused Amazon of following identical practices, but added that it does not have strong enough financial backing to tackle these two giants simultaneously.
