Google loses against Sonos, it must pay 32 million dollars

• A US jury has delivered its verdict, Google must pay Sonos $32 million
• Court acknowledges patent infringement, but not a clear victory
• And we risk hearing about this battle between the two companies again in the coming months.

Google and Sonos, which specializes in speakers, have been engaged in a legal battle for a few years. And recently, Sonos scored a win. As an article by The Verge indicates, on Friday, a jury in a San Francisco court returned a verdict in favor of Sonos. According to this verdict, Google did infringe a Sonos patent. And the Mountain View company must pay 2.3 dollars for each unit involved (more than 14 million). As a result, the damage was assessed at more than 32 million dollars.

As part of this case, Sonos accuses Google of infringing patents relating to the control of several connected speakers (of several rooms in the house). And the legal battle between the two companies began in 2020, with Sonos accusing Google of copying its technology by taking advantage of a 2013 collaboration. Eddie Lazarus, Chief Legal Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Sonos, expressed the company’s appreciation the jury that upheld the validity of the patents.

“This verdict reaffirms that Google is a serial infringer of our patent portfolio, as previously ruled by the International Trade Commission regarding five other Sonos patents”also said the leader of Sonos. “In total, we believe Google is infringing more than 200 Sonos patents and today’s damages award, based on a significant piece of our portfolio, demonstrates the exceptional value of our intellectual property. Our goal remains for Google to pay us a fair royalty for the Sonos inventions it has appropriated.”

A volume story

Sonos indeed already scored a victory in 2022, when the International Trade Commission, an agency of the US government, ruled in favor of Sonos. Google had then modified the operation of its products in order to comply with the decision of this agency. Changes which, as Android Police explained, affected the volume control of the connected speakers.

For its part, Google reacted to recent developments by explaining that it is “of a narrow dispute over some very specific features that are not commonly used.” “Of the six patents initially asserted by Sonos, only one was found to be infringed, and the others were dismissed as invalid or not infringed. We have always developed technology independently and competed on the merits of our ideas. We are thinking about our next steps”also said the representative of Google, quoted by The Verge.

It is not finished

Note also that this is not a clear victory for Sonos. Indeed, the judge asked the jury to disregard a $90 million damages assessment, citing inadmissible evidence. In addition, the judge would also have criticized the two companies, because they could not find arrangements. This one would have declared that the business is “emblematic of the worst of patent litigation.”

In any case, the verdict could have an effect on Sonos’ ability to seek royalties for its inventions. But it is likely that we will hear more about this battle between Sonos and Google in the coming months. In an article from 2020, our colleagues from 01net spoke of a “endless judicial ping pong”. The Mountain View firm could appeal. And it has already counter-attacked by also accusing its opponent of patent infringement.