Google And Sonos Are Getting Hotter, Suing And Accusing Each Other Of Stealing Patents

JAKARTA - The dispute between Google from Alphabet Inc., and Sonos is heating up. Now it's Google's turn to hit back at Sonos with a pair of lawsuits alleging that the wireless speaker company has infringed on a number of its patents around smart speakers and voice control technology.

This is the latest battle in a back-and-forth battle over wireless speaker claims that have so far involved multiple lawsuits from Sonos, one lawsuit from Google, and a ruling in Sonos' favor that led to features being removed from Google products.

The new lawsuit alleges infringement of seven additional patents. One lawsuit focuses on fast word detection and wireless charging, and the other revolves around how a group of speakers determines which one should respond to voice input.

Google spokesman José Castaneda told The Verge that the lawsuits were filed to "defend our technology and challenge Sonos' clear and persistent infringement of our patents."

Castaneda said Sonos had "initiated an aggressive and misleading campaign against our products, at the expense of our mutual customers."

Both lawsuits were filed last Monday in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Google plans to file a similar lawsuit with the US International Trade Commission in the coming days that will seek to ban imports of infringing Sonos products. Castaneda said this to The Verge.

Sonos classifies the new lawsuits as an "intimidation tactic" and says they are intended to "retaliate against Sonos for speaking out against Google's monopolistic practices," which allows Google to avoid paying royalties. "They want to destroy a smaller competitor," Eddie Lazarus, chief legal officer at Sonos, said in a statement to The Verge. "That's not going to work."

The legal battle began in 2020 when Sonos initially sued Google over its multi-room speaker technology. The two companies had partnered years before to make Google services work on Sonos speakers.

Eventually Sonos claimed that Google then stole its speaker technology to build the Google Home and other devices. Google hit back a few months later, claiming Sonos also infringed a number of its patents. Then Sonos sued again. Finally, in January – two years after the first lawsuit was filed – the US International Trade Commission ruled in Sonos' favor, finding Google infringing on Sonos' patents.

In response, Google had to adapt the features of some of its products. That includes Google removing the ability to adjust the volume of a group of speakers at once and a pretty annoying change for owners of multiple Google speakers.

Today's lawsuit appears to be Google's attempt to gain leverage on Sonos as the two argue over features.