Google sues Sonos for using technology without permission

Google has sued Sonos for allegedly infringing patents owned by Google. Sonos allegedly infringes with its controller apps and the Sonos Radio service.

Google has filed the patent lawsuit with the San Francisco court, Reuters writes . The accusation is that Sonos uses technology that Google has patents on, without Sonos having licenses for that use. This includes techniques for searching, streaming, audio processing and digital file management.

Google is counter-attacking this, after Sonos filed patent claims against Google at the beginning of this year . “Sonos has made false claims about the joint work of both companies and Google’s technology,” Google now reports on those charges. Google rarely claims to sue other companies for patent use, but now feels compelled to do so.

Sonos is confident about both cases and even says that Google is infringing Sonos patents. “Google has chosen to use its size to strike back. It is sad to see that a company that was once innovative and had a ‘do no evil’ mission ignores the fact that it is infringing our inventions”, said Patrick Spence, director of Sonos, according to Bloomberg .

In its patent claims, Sonos states that Google uses Sonos technology for its Google Home speakers. Google is said to have acquired this technology through the collaboration that it had with Sonos from 2013 to connect services. According to Sonos, Google violated about a hundred of its patents in total, but the charges are limited to five. One of the patents describes how wireless speakers can connect and synchronize with each other.