Speakers company defeats Big Tech
In bringing this important case, Sonos has shown yet another example of Google’s unethical corporate behaviour
Smart speakers are a boon to many people, especially Google’s range of voice-assistant models that can read you the news or the weather. You can also ask any of Google’s speakers to play music or podcasts, or to search for something.
But the “cost” is that Google (and Amazon) record everything you say and use these recordings to build up its voice-recognition software.
Revelations about how much personal data has been extracted — and heard by humans, who are hired for “grading” the quality of the machinelearning algorithms — haven’t seemed to dim anyone’s enthusiasm.
Some people have multiple Google speakers and are able to control what they play and the volume, while conveniently adjusting all these speakers together and using their hardware buttons to control them. There’s only one problem for Google. The technology to do that was invented by Sonos, the maker of the gold standard in music-streaming speakers. Sonos foolishly shared its blueprints in 2013, before Google (and Amazon) started releasing their own, cheaper smart speakers and undercutting Sonos.
“Google has been blatantly and knowingly copying our patented technology,” Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said in August 2021.
“Despite our repeated and extensive efforts over the past few years, Google has not shown any willingness to work with us on a mutually beneficial solution. We’re left with no choice but to litigate.”
In January, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) finally found in Sonos’s favour after a two-year David vs Goliath lawsuit.
The Alphabet-owned search giant infringed on five audio patents and the court ruled that a “limited exclusion order” would be imposed “prohibiting the import of certain audio technologies, controllers, and components made by Google”.
The court ruled that Google could not import these products to the US. They include Google Home smart speakers, its Chromecast streaming video device and its Pixel smartphones. The ruling takes effect in 60 days, or early March.
Google said it would bring an appeal and has told the court how it would make changes to the speakers. Why it didn’t just change them is a sign that the Sonos patents worked — and better than Google’s own solution, or it would have implemented it.
Sonos can rightly feel happy with the win. “We appreciate that the ITC has definitively validated the five Sonos patents at issue in this case and ruled unequivocally that Google infringes all five,” said Sonos chief legal officer Eddie Lazarus. “It is an across-the-board win that is surpassingly rare in patent cases.”
Sonos has two other patent infringement cases against Google.
The first, in Los Angeles, which includes overlapping patents in the ITC case, was postponed until that was concluded; the other, in San Francisco, involves other patents.
It is an across-theboard win that is surpassingly rare in patent cases