A U.S. International Trade Commission judge sided with Sonos in one of the company’s legal battles against Google.
A legal dispute between Sonos and Google over smart speaker technologies came one step closer to resolution with U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) Judge Charles Bullock’s preliminary ruling that Google did indeed violate five Sonos patents with some of its products. The Verge reported in January 2020 that Sonos asked the ITC to ban the sale of Google smartphones, laptops, and speakers in the U.S. after filing two lawsuits accusing the company of stealing a variety of multi-room speaker technologies covered by five of its patents. That original lawsuit has since expanded to a counter-suit from Google as well as another suit related to five additional patents from Sonos.
