Sonos wins import ban on Google’s Nest, Pixel products
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has handed a victory to Sonos, after it barred Alphabet’s Google from importing some smart home devices and audio systems produced in China into the US.
The ITC published the decision Thursday, January 6, upholding a judge’s findings last August that Google used Sonos’ patented inventions systems without the appropriate authorisation.
Sonos had filed a complaint in January 2020, holding that Google had infringed five patents covering audio players and controllers, including US numbers 9,195,258, 10,209,953, 8,588,949, 9,219,959 and 10,439,896. Sonos also sued Google over the same patents at a federal court in California, prompting a countersuit from the tech giant.
The dispute centred on Google products with sound systems, including the Nest Hub, Nest Wifi point, Pixel smartphones and Pixelbook laptops, and the ITC initiated its investigation in February.
In August 2021, ITC Judge Charles Bullock sided in favour of Sonos in a preliminary ruling, which found that Google had infringed all of the patents, paving the way for Google’s first import ban at the trade agency.
The agency affirmed this decision on Thursday, ruling that the internet company also must stop selling products that have already been imported that infringe the Sonos patents.
Shares of Sonos rose more than 5% following, reported Bloomberg.
In a statement released to the press, Sonos chief legal officer Eddie Lazarus welcomed the “across the board win” that he said underscored Google’s “hollow denials of infringement”.
“These Sonos patents cover Sonos’ groundbreaking invention of extremely popular home audio features, including the set up for controlling home audio systems, the synchronisation of multiple speakers, the independent volume control of different speakers, and the stereo pairing of speakers,” he said.
“While Google may sacrifice consumer experience in an attempt to circumvent this importation ban, its products will still infringe many dozens of Sonos patents, its wrongdoing will persist, and the damages owed Sonos will continue to accrue,” the statement said.
Google said disappointed in the ruling, but insisted that it had introduced workarounds to prevent any interruptions, according to a report by Bloomberg,
Commenting on the ITC’s ban, José Castañeda, policy communications manager at Google, said: “While we disagree with today’s decision, we appreciate that the ITC has approved our modified designs and we do not expect any impact to our ability to import or sell our products.”
He added that Google would seek further review and was determined to continue to defend itself against Sonos’s “frivolous claims” about the pair’s defunct partnership.
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