US judge: Google infringes Sonos patents over syncing speakers

The US International Trade Commission has ruled that Google has infringed five Sonos patents. This confirms an earlier decision of this body. It is about Sonos technology to synchronize multiple devices within a network.

According to The New York Times, this final ruling by the United States International Trade Commission means that Google cannot import products into the US that infringe Sonos’ intellectual property. This import ban will come into effect in 60 days. That’s the time for the US president to finally approve or veto the verdict, although the latter rarely happens, according to Bloomberg.

This ruling is based on the finding that Google’s actions have violated a US law, namely the Tariff Act of 1930. This law is there to prevent unfair competition, which can specifically target the import of products that infringe US patents or copyrights. A cease-and-desist order has also been issued against Google. According to Sonos, a fairly broad group of Google products with audio systems will be affected by the ruling, including the Nest Hub and Nest Mini, as well as Chromecast and Pixel phones.

Google expresses the expectation to The Verge, among others, that the ruling will have no consequences for the import and sale of its products. The company bases this on the fact that the International Trade Commission has previously approved specific workarounds from Google for each of the five patents. The company says customers will not experience any disruptions, as they have 60 days to implement changes.

These are probably changes specific to the US market. The community manager of the Nest team says that adjustments are already being made in response to the current ruling. These changes include how customers set up their devices and specifically interact with Speaker Group functionality. The latter will be more cumbersome. Owners of relevant devices can no longer adjust the volume of a group of devices in one go; this will soon have to be done for each individual device. It will also no longer be possible to adjust the volume of a group of devices via the physical volume buttons on a smartphone.

Sonos already talked about the possibility that Google could have certain product features deteriorated or eliminated in order to circumvent the ban of the International Trade Commission. The company says it is pleased with the outcome of this case and that such a victory, in which all patents have been ruled in favor of Sonos, is becoming increasingly rare in patent cases.

Google disagrees with the statement. In theory, the company could appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. However, Google could also choose to pay royalties to Sonos. In that case, nothing needs to change, because Google will then purchase a license to use Sonos’ technology.