Sonos Wins Lawsuit Against Google, Forcing Latter To Modify Home Speakers

Sonos has won a lawsuit against Google for infringing on five of its patents, including one involving technology that allowed its wireless speakers to “communicate” with one another. The US International Trade Commission has sided with the former.

As such, Google now has to modify its Home smart speakers, Pixel phones and computers, and Chromecast devices. For example, users of Google Nest will no longer be able to adjust the volume of all the speakers in their group at one go, but must instead adjust each speaker individually. 

Additionally, as per Ars Technica, users will also lose the ability to control the volume of their speakers via their smartphone’s volume buttons. 

It appears that despite winning the lawsuit, Sonos won’t be letting the matter go just yet. There’s a possibility it could want Google to pay royalties for the patents it infringed upon instead of removing the features from products that are already in homes worldwide. 

“It is a possibility that Google will be able to degrade or eliminate product features in a way that circumvents the importation ban that the ITC has imposed,” Sonos said in a statement.

“Alternatively, Google can—as other companies have already done—pay a fair royalty for the technologies it has misappropriated.”

[via TechCrunch and Ars Technica, cover image via Info849943 | Dreamstime.com]