Sonos wins $32.5 million patent infringement victory over Google

Google has been ordered to pay Sonos $32.5 million for infringing on the corporate’s sensible speaker patent. A jury verdict issued in a San Francisco courtroom on Friday discovered that Google’s sensible audio system and media gamers infringed on considered one of two Sonos patents at problem.

“This can be a slender dispute about some very particular options that aren’t generally used,” Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels says in an announcement to The Verge. “Of the six patents Sonos initially asserted, just one was discovered to be infringed, and the remaining had been dismissed as invalid or not infringed. We’ve at all times developed know-how independently and competed on the advantage of our concepts. We’re contemplating our subsequent steps.”

Sonos didn’t come out of the case utterly victorious, nevertheless, because the jury determined that Google’s Dwelling app didn’t infringe on a separate patent filed by Sonos. The decide additionally informed jurors to “disregard a $90 million damages estimate from a Sonos knowledgeable witness, saying he had determined that a few of the proof offered was inadmissible,” Law360 stories.

The choice will go down as an embarrassing defeat for Google, however each firms had been the topic of blunt criticism from Decide William Alsup, who has presided over many tech firm courtroom battles. Alsup expressed frustration that this case ever went to trial within the first place and the 2 sides had been unable to settle. He stated it was “emblematic of the worst of patent litigation.” He additionally famous the technical jargon surrounding the patents at problem, at one level checking with jurors to ensure they hadn’t fallen asleep, based on Law360.

Replace Might twenty sixth, 5:30PM ET: Up to date so as to add an announcement from a Google spokesperson.