The International Trade Commission calls it: Google infringed on Sonos’ patents. The ruling could result in an import ban on Google Nest speakers, Chromecast devices, and Pixel phones.
The patent battle between Sonos and Google just went in the speaker maker’s favor, with a final ruling finding that Google imported and sold products that infringed on five of Sonos’ audio technology patents. This followed a preliminary ruling against Google last August. After a years-long fight, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ultimately decided that “the appropriate remedies are a limited exclusion order and a cease-and-desist order against Google.” As such, an import ban on select Google products will go into effect within 60 days, unless President Biden vetoes the decision via a process known as presidential review.
