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Corporations
Regulation Corporations Sonos patent underlying jury verdict is invalid, decide says
Decide stated patent used to ‘enrich a pretender’ by ‘sleight of hand’
Oct 9 (Reuters) – A California federal decide has thrown out a $32.5 million verdict for wireless-audio firm Sonos (SONO.O) in opposition to rival Google (GOOGL.O) after discovering that the Sonos patents on the coronary heart of the case have been unenforceable.
U.S. District Decide William Alsup stated on Friday that Sonos had improperly tried to attach its patents for multi-room audio expertise to a 2006 software to assert that its innovations predated Google’s gadgets.
“This was not a case of an inventor main the trade to one thing new,” Alsup stated. “This was a case of the trade main with one thing new and, solely then, an inventor popping out of the woodwork to say that he had give you the concept first.”
A Sonos spokesperson stated on Monday that the ruling was “incorrect on each the details and legislation” and that the corporate would attraction. Representatives for Google didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the choice on Monday.
The case is a part of a sprawling mental property dispute between the previous collaborators that features different lawsuits within the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Sonos additionally received a restricted import ban on some Google gadgets from the U.S. Worldwide Commerce Fee final 12 months primarily based on completely different Sonos patents, which Google has appealed. Google has countered with its personal patent lawsuits in California and on the ITC.
The businesses beforehand labored collectively to combine Mountain View, California-based Google’s streaming music service into Sonos merchandise. Sonos first sued Google in 2020, accusing the tech big of copying its expertise in wi-fi audio gadgets together with Google Residence and Chromecast Audio.
Sonos received $32.5 million in damages from Google in San Francisco in Could after a federal jury discovered that Google’s gadgets infringed one of many firm’s patents. Google requested Alsup to toss the decision on a number of grounds, together with that Sonos strategically held off on making use of for the patents for greater than a decade till the tech big had launched its allegedly infringing gadgets.
Alsup agreed with Google on Friday that Sonos had linked its 2019 patent functions to an software from 2006 to obtain artificially early precedence dates. Google started promoting its competing gadgets in 2015, and the decide stated Google’s merchandise “anticipated” the 2019 patents and made them invalid.
The case is Sonos Inc v. Google LLC, U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of California, No. 3:20-cv-06754.
For Google: Sean Pak of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
For Sonos: Clement Roberts of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
Learn extra:
US jury says Google owes Sonos $32.5 million in smart-speaker patent case
Google, Sonos head to trial in contentious good speaker patent battle
Reporting by Blake Brittain
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.
