Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. News

Sonos files second lawsuit against Google over patent infringement

By

Sonos filed yet another lawsuit against Google on Tuesday, alleging the tech giant copied more of its innovations, specifically for Google’s smart speakers. 

The lawsuit alleges that Google infringed on five of Sonos’ patents, including the ability to transfer the playback of music to the speaker from your phone, to manage different rooms of music around the home. 

Recommended Videos

Specifically, the lawsuit points to Google’s Chromecast Audio Adapter and its multiroom support. 

Sonos Speaker Logo
Image used with permission by copyright holder

“Google has chosen to double down on its disregard for IP [intellectual property] and smaller American inventors, and we believe it is vitally important that Sonos, both for its own sake and for that of other smaller innovative companies, stand up to monopolists who try to copy and subsidize their way to further domination,” a Sonos spokesperson said in a statement. 

Sonos said it has filed another lawsuit because Google continues to disregard its IP.

A Google spokesperson told Digital Trends that it has worked constructively with Sonos to make the companies’ products work seamlessly by building special integrations for Sonos.

“Sonos has made misleading statements about our history of working together. Our technology and devices were designed independently. We deny their claims vigorously, and will be defending against them,” the spokesperson said.

It’s the second time Sonos has filed a lawsuit against Google over patent infringement. In January, the tech company sued Google under similar allegations. Sonos claimed that during the time it originally partnered with Google to enable its music service and its voice assistant on Sonos’ devices and software platform, Google turned around and used Sonos patents involving the setup, control, playback, and synchronization of wireless playback devices. 

Then, in June, Google countersued Sonos, alleging that the whole-house audio company infringed on five different Google patents. These patents include mesh networking, echo cancellation, DRM, content notifications, and personalized search.

“Sonos is actively infringing Google’s intellectual property.  Sonos has no license to use Google’s patents,” Google said in its lawsuit.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Allison Matyus
Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
Your Google Photos app may soon get a big overhaul. Here’s what it looks like
The Google Photos app running on a Google Pixel 8 Pro.

Google Photos is set to get a long-overdue overhaul that will bring new and improved sharing and notification features to the app. With its automatic backups, easy sorting and search, and album sharing, Google Photos has always been one of the better photo apps, and now it's set to get a whole slew of AI features.

According to an APK teardown done by Android Authority and the leaker AssembleDebug, Google is now set to double down on improving sharing features. Google Photos will get a new social-focused sharing page in version 6.85.0.637477501 for Android devices.

Read more
The numbers are in. Is AMD abandoning gamers for AI?
AMD's RX 7700 XT in a test bench.

The data for the first quarter of 2024 is in, and it's bad news for the giants behind some of the best graphics cards. GPU shipments have decreased, and while every GPU vendor experienced this, AMD saw the biggest drop in shipments. Combined with the fact that AMD's gaming revenue is down significantly, it's hard not to wonder about the company's future in the gaming segment.

The report comes from the analyst firm Jon Peddie Research, and the news is not all bad. The PC-based GPU market hit 70 million units in the first quarter of 2024, and from year to year, total GPU shipments (which includes all types of graphics cards) increased by 28% (desktop GPU shipments dropped by -7%, and CPU shipments grew by 33.3%). Comparing the final quarter of 2023 to the beginning of this year looks much less optimistic, though.

Read more
Hackers claim they’re selling the user data of 560 million Ticketmaster customers
A crowd enjoying a music show that you are at because of Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster is giving people a lot to talk about. If the Justice Department is not suing it, it's reportedly suffering a data breach affecting the vital information of hundreds of millions of users. Hackread reports that a hacker group is claiming it breached Ticketmaster, putting the personal data of 560 million users at risk of suffering all types of attacks.

According to Hackread, the total amount of stolen data reaches 1.3TB and includes personal information such as names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, event details, ticket sales, order information, and partial payment card data. The list doesn't end there, though, as the compromised data also includes customer fraud details, expiration dates, and the last four digits of card numbers.

Read more