Sadly, Google Must Sue Sonos

In January, Sonos sued Google alleging infringement of five patents covering multiroom network speaker systems. Sonos claimed the technology was stolen after Google worked with Sonos to integrate Google Play Music. The suit also claims that Google imposed onerous terms for allowing Sonos to include Google Assistant on its products, including sharing the full Sonos product strategy for six months while Google developed competing products. Google’s countersuit alleges that Sonos is infringing Google patents covering mesh networking, echo cancellation, DRM, content notifications, and personalized search. According to an article in The Verge, Google is partially motivated by the chance to show how aggrieved it is after what it views as helpful support for Sonos’ product development efforts. “While Google rarely sues other companies for patent infringement, it must assert its intellectual property rights here,” the company says, and claims that it provided “significant assistance in designing, implementing, and testing,” Sonos’ products. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence told The Verge: “Instead of simply addressing the merits of our case, and paying us what we’re owed, Google has chosen to use their size and breadth to try and find areas in which they can retaliate. We look forward to winning our original case, and winning this newly filed retaliatory case as well.”