Google sues Sonos over voice assistant patents

Google has filed suit against Sonos, claiming that the company's new voice system infringes on seven patents concerning its Google Assistant technology, according to CNET. It's the latest volley in a long-standing rivalry between the firms, with each suing and countersuing the other during a time when they were collaborating.

A Google spokesperson added, "Sonos has begun an aggressive and deceptive campaign against our products, putting the interests of our shared consumers at risk.

In June, Sonos introduced its own voice control feature, which was similar to Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant. According to the complaint, Google "worked with Sonos engineers on the implementation of voice recognition and voice-activated devices management for many years... even giving Google Assistant software to Sonos for several years."

When Google and Sonos collaborated for many years, a legal battle began in early 2020. After working together for several years, Sonos sued Google over patent infringement. According to Sonos, when they collaborated, Google gained knowledge of its technology and used that information to create its own smart speaker line. In September 2020, Sonos filed another lawsuit, alleging that Google had infringed on five additional patents.

Google filed a countersuit, alleging that Sonos was using Google's search, software, networking, audio processing, and other technology without paying a license fee and making "false claims" about their collaboration.

In 2021, the US International Trade Commission ruled that Google had violated five Sonos patents. That prompted Google to make adjustments in order to avoid an import ban. The majority of these were concerned with how group volumes are managed, for example; users can no longer change the volume of a block of speakers and must adjust them one at a time instead.

"Google previously sued us in every country, and Sonos has won each case," says Eddie Lazarus, chief legal officer for Sonos. "The most recent lawsuits are intended to intimidate us into quieting down because we have spoken up about Google's monopolistic activities."