Sonos’s stock took an immediate fall after Google announced, that they were turning the screws on the wireless audio Company, after new legal action against the US audio Company for infringing on a number of Google patents were filed overnight.
Initially it was Sonos taking legal action against Google with Sonos winning the first round, now it appears that Google is set to go after Sonos who they have accused of an aggressive and misleading campaign relating to Google and the use of network audio technology.
Google claim that the wireless speaker company is infringing on a number of its patents around smart speakers and voice control technology.
A spokesperson for the big search and technology Company José Castañeda said the lawsuits are being filed to “defend our technology and challenge Sonos’s clear, continued infringement of our patents.” Castañeda said that Sonos had “started an aggressive and misleading campaign against our products, at the expense of our shared customers.”
Sonos who in the past has had no problems trying to nobble existing customers Sonos speakers in an effort to driver new sales, characterized the new lawsuits as an “intimidation tactic” and said they were intended to “retaliate against Sonos for speaking out against Google’s monopolistic practices,” allow Google to avoid royalty payments, and “grind down a smaller competitor,” Eddie Lazarus, chief legal officer at Sonos, told The Verge. “It will not succeed.”
It’s the latest volley in a back-and-forth battle over wireless speakers that has so far involved multiple lawsuits from Sonos, one lawsuit from Google, and one ruling in favor of Sonos that’s led to features being stripped from Google’s products.
These new lawsuits allege infringement of seven additional patents.
The initial lawsuit focuses on hotword detection and wireless charging, and the other revolves around how a group of speakers determines which one should respond to voice input.
Both lawsuits were filed this morning in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Google plans to file similar lawsuits with the US International Trade Commission in the coming days that will seek to ban imports of any infringing Sonos products, Castañeda told The Verge.
This could affect shipments to Australia if successful.
The legal skirmish started in 2020 when Sonos initially sued Google over multiroom speaker technology.
The two companies had partnered years earlier to make Google services work on Sonos’s speakers, and Sonos claimed that Google went on to steal its speaker tech to build the Google Home and other devices. Google countersued months later, claiming Sonos infringed on a number of its patents, too. Then Sonos sued again. Finally, in January — two years after the first lawsuit was filed — the US International Trade Commission ruled in Sonos’ favor, finding Google in violation of Sonos’ patents.
In response, Google has had to adjust features of some of its products. That included Google removing the ability to adjust the volume of a group of speakers at once — a pretty annoying change for owners of multiple Google speakers. Today’s lawsuits seem to be an attempt by Google to gain leverage on Sonos as the two spars over features.
During the past year Sonos stock has fallen 33% the Company is due to report their latest results next week.
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