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Sonos vs. Google: Ruling ensures import ban

For the past two years, a legal battle has been quietly raging between Sonos and Google. The popular manufacturer of WiFi speakers accused Google of infringing a total of five patents. As a court has now found, these infringements did indeed exist.

Import ban on certain Google speakers

The import ban won by Sonos affects some of the search engine giant’s devices. In particular, the speakers of the Google Home family are among them. But on top of that, the popular Chromecasts and the in-house Google smartphone Pixel are said to infringe the patents. Google is henceforth prohibited from launching these products on the US market. A permission for import and distribution would only come back when the tech company removes the relevant technologies again.

Fewer features for Google users

What is good news for the multi-room speaker is likely to cause problems for Google itself and owners of an affected device. While this is “only” economic in nature for Google, users will probably have to adjust to a limitation of features. The United States International Trade Commission focused in particular on features related to voice control. While it is currently still possible to regulate the volume of several Google Speakers via voice control, this is to be omitted in the course of the now ordered adjustments. Those who have set up a Google-based Multiroom system at home will certainly not be happy about this. Finally, one must now go back to an individual control of each speaker.

Sonos shared knowledge with Google

In the course of the proceedings, a sad but familiar picture of Google was drawn again. Thus, Sonos has reported that they used to talk about the possibilities of multi-room speakers and the associated technology. The US company also shared the corresponding ideas along with their implementation with Google. Without permission, the search engine giant then apparently brazenly took over the patents and used them itself without further ado. Google now has just under two months to adapt the affected products accordingly.

Simon Lüthje

I am co-founder of this blog and am very interested in everything that has to do with technology, but I also like to play games. I was born in Hamburg, but now I live in Bad Segeberg.

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For the past two years, a legal battle has been quietly raging between Sonos and Google. The popular manufacturer of WiFi speakers accused Google of infringing a total of five patents. As a court has now found, these infringements did indeed exist. Import ban on certain Google speakers The import ban won by Sonos affects … (Weiterlesen...)

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