Google Redesigns Work Around Sonos Patents, Filing Indicates
- Google redesigns could blunt Sonos victory at trade agency
- Sonos is seeking import ban of Google home audio players
Sonos Inc.’s initial victory against Alphabet Inc.’s Google over home audio systems may not be the slam dunk investors initially thought.
A filing in the U.S. International Trade Commission case against Google indicates a judge determined that the search giant found a way to work around Sonos patents for how to synchronize audio playback and eliminate minor differences from speakers that the ear can interpret as echoes, among other technologies.
Sonos claims Google copied its technology to undercut Sonos sales and is seeking an order that would ban imports of Google’s Home and Chromecast systems and Pixel phones and laptops, which are made in China. The commission is scheduled to make a final decision in the case by December, and a finding that Google could successfully work around the Sonos patents would blunt the impact of any import ban.
ITC Judge Charles Bullock, in a one-paragraph notice issued last month, said he had determined that there had been a violation of all five Sonos patents in the case. At trial, Google had told the judge it had come up with new designs to avoid the Sonos patents, and the judge’s August notice gave no indicated how he had ruled on that issue.