Sonos is suing Google in two different courts over allegations of patent infringement. While the patent litigation is the primary reason, a secondary reason may be increasingly anti-competitive relationship Sonos has with Google and Amazon. Sonos relies on both for their virtual assistants and storefronts, however, Google Home and Amazon Echo undercut Sonos speakers in price by a significant margin.
Sonos is suing Google in two courts for allegedly stealing its speaker technology, according to The New York Times. Sonos says that Google is infringing on at least five patents related to wireless syncing of multiple speakers. The company is seeking a ban on all of Google’s speakers, smartphones, and laptops in the United States along with financial restitution.
The lawsuit is looking for both financial penalties as well as a ban on sales of Google hardware, including phones and laptops. It’s accompanied by a matching US International Trade Commission complaint that could also block the import of Google devices. Companies embroiled in patent disputes often use simultaneous ITC complaints as a way to force the other side to the table, since those tend to wrap up sooner than lawsuits.
Sonos said the lawsuit reflected just a fraction of what it had suffered under not just Google, but Amazon as well. The speaker firm claimed that Amazon and Google likely violated 100 patents each, and that this was really part of a pattern of tech giants abusing necessary partnerships to squeeze competition for their smart speakers. Sonos told the New York Times that it suspected the patent dispute had affected other aspects of the Google relationship, such as stricter rules for Assistant voice control and a requirement to divulge details of future hardware up to six months in advance.
Executives at Sonos claimed that Google tried to stifle the arguments by insisting that Sonos was violating patents (without sharing much info) and providing counter-proposals for licensing fees that had it paying a negligible amount.
Not surprisingly, the targets of these allegations object to the claims. A Google spokesperson said the company would fight the lawsuit and was “disappointed” that Sonos chose to sue instead of “continuing negotiations in good faith.” Amazon, meanwhile, denied that it violated any patents and said its multi-room music was “developed independently.”
Sonos is also feeling the pinch of both Amazon and Google undercutting the price of Sonos’ speakers. While the cheapest Sonos speaker goes for $200, both the Google Home Mini and Amazon Echo Dot go for around $50, often much cheaper during sales. Sonos executives are concerned that Amazon and Google are simply flooding the market with cheap speakers for the greater purpose of selling ads and collecting data.
