Google sues Sonos over unauthorized use of technology

Google has sued Sonos for allegedly infringing on patents owned by Google. Sonos allegedly infringed, among other things, with its controller apps and the Sonos Radio service.

Google has filed the patent suit with the San Francisco court, Reuters reports. The accusation is that Sonos uses technology that Google has patents on, without Sonos having licenses for that use. These include search, streaming, audio processing and digital file management techniques.

Google is counterattacking with this, after Sonos filed patent claims against Google early this year. Sonos has made false claims about the joint work of the two companies and Google’s technology. Google rarely claims to sue other companies for patent use, but now feels compelled to do so.

Sonos says it looks forward to both cases with confidence and even says that Google is actually infringing Sonos patents. “Google has chosen to use its size to strike back. It is sad to see a company that was once innovative and whose mission was to ‘do no evil’ ignore the fact that it is infringing on our inventions.” said Patrick Spence, director of Sonos, according to Bloomberg.

In its patent claims, Sonos states that Google uses Sonos technology for its Google Home speakers. Google would have come to that technology through the collaboration it had with Sonos from 2013 to connect services to each other. According to Sonos, Google has infringed about 100 of its patents, but the charges are limited to five. One of the patents describes how wireless speakers can connect and synchronize with each other.