Google is fined $32.5 million in a Sonos patent lawsuit

On Friday, a jury ruled in a lawsuit between Google and Sonos over alleged patent infringement. The San Francisco lawsuit resulted in a decision leaning towards Sonos, with Google paying millions.

The lawsuit, which began when Sonos sued Google in early 2020, had the speaker maker claim that Google had infringed on its patents for multiroom audio in its own speaker lineup and other devices, reports Law360

The verdict form provided to the jury relates to two patents, the first of which is the “885 patent” covering simultaneous multiroom audio. For that patent, Google could not clearly show that the patent was invalid, but at the same time Sonos was able to show that Google infringed claim 1 of that patent.

Previously, courts have found Google to be infringing on its older products. In this particular case, it was to determine whether newer products were infringing since that ruling.

With regard to a second patent, the “966”, which deals with the use of smartphones to control other devices, the jury again emphasized that Google could not prove the invalidity of five patent claims. However, Sonos also failed to successfully prove that Google had violated those same claims.

For damages, the jury found a royalty of $2.30 per unit to be paid by Google to Sonos. At 14 million units, the total amount payable is $32,507,183.40.

After the lawsuit, Google insisted it was a “close dispute over some very specific features that aren’t commonly used,” and focused on the fact that there was only one patent infringing. “We’ve always developed technology independently and competed based on our ideas. We’re considering our next steps.”

Sonos was more celebratory in its post-court statement, thanking the jury for its time and dedication and for “recognizing the value of Sonos’ invention of zone scenes.” The verdict “reaffirms that Google is a serial infringer of our patent portfolio,” Sonos continued.

“In all, we believe Google is infringing more than 200 Sonos patents, and today’s indemnification, based on a key part of our portfolio, demonstrates the exceptional value of our intellectual property,” the statement followed. “Our goal remains for Google to pay us a fair royalty for the Sonos inventions it has appropriated.”

Earlier, in 2022, the US ITC upheld a ruling that Google had infringed five Sonos technology patents.