Google, forced to cap its speakers and Chromecasts for infringing Sonos patents

Amplifiers clever and Google’s Android devices are an important part of its vision for a environmental system Connected, and now can be at risk later due to failure commercial court.

International Trade Commission B The United States (ITC) ruled that Google is violating Audio patents held by Sonos. (could beis being View PDF file from error here). this is It means that Google can no longer import products that infringe Sonos’ intellectual property (its hardware are manufactured overseas) as The committee gave the company a moratorium. Judgment is now being taken to President Biden’s office. Biden has 60 days to veto the order.

The commission spent two years investigating whether Google had violated the Tariff Act of 1930, a law designed to prevent unfair competition from imported products that violating US Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights. The committee was deliberating From August, after a judge tentatively ruled that Google had infringed Patents.

Sonos has asked the International Trade Center to ban the import of infringing Google products Its patents, including Google Home smart speakers, Pixel smartphones, and Chromecast devices. A Google spokesperson said Bloomberg that they had was working on it Redesign your products after the initial decision of August To avoid infringement of Sonos patents, So there will be no interruption in sales.

“While we do not agree with today’s decision, we will ensure that our customers do You have the best using experience A Google spokesperson said our products are not experiencing any outages.”, Jose Castaneda. We will seek further review and will continue to defend ourselves against Sonos’ frivolous allegations about us Intellectual property”.

Foot Sonos your complaint about it January 2020 After warning Google several times about his site Alleged violations. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said that By the time Google had “blatantly and deliberately” copied its audio technology. The patents in question appear to be related to Google’s streaming infrastructure, such as The way it handles multi-room operation between network devices.

Sonos . said It wants Google to license its technology, and the two companies have reportedly discussed it an agreement. Sonos’ chief legal officer, Eddie Lazarus, has estimated that Google has infringed more than 150 of the company’s patents.

Google still has a chance to appeal the ruling after the period Presidential review, so it is unclear whether the company You will have to start selling different versions of your devices.