Google has been sued by Sonos, here are the consequences for you

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has found that Google is infringing five Sonos patents related to smart speakers and audio. This may block imports from some Google devices in the US.

Course of the lawsuit

The legal battle between Sonos and Google has been going on for a number of years. In January 2020, Sonos filed two lawsuits against Google. Sonos claims that Google stole its multi-room speaker technology and infringed on 100 patents. In September, Sonos sued Google because the tech group’s entire line of Chromecast, Nest speakers, Pixel phones, laptops, and tablets infringed five of Sonos’ patents. A judge ruled in favor of Sonos (for now).

Now reports The New York Times that there is a final ruling from the American ITC and that ruling means that Google is no longer allowed to import products that infringe Sonos patents. According to Sonos, this concerns the Google Pixel phones and computers, Chromecasts and Google Home/Nest speakers. The ban will come into effect in 60 days and in the meantime US President Joe Biden will have his say.

Which patents are involved?

The Sonos patents cover synchronizing audio played through multiple speakers and having a ‘controller’ device. That device instructs the speakers to connect and play music. They also cover creating speaker groups and setting up new devices.

Thanks to the speaker groups, you can have your Google Nest devices in your home play the same music at the same time. This can concern smart speakers, Chromecasts and smart displays. The speaker groups that you have created can be found in the Google Home app and you can tap the group and then immediately play music via the default music app that you have set. You can also use the speaker groups via the Nest Hub or via the Google Assistant.

Sonos also has such a system where you can group speakers to play music synchronously. According to Sonos, they came up with this system, and Sonos shared details about how it works with Google in 2013. This was necessary because Sonos was eager to add Google Play Music to its music system. There were no Google Home or Nest speakers then.

What is going to happen now?

Google has meanwhile issued the statement below, has been working on alternatives for some time. The US Trade Commission has approved those alternatives, according to Google.

While we disagree with the decision, we appreciate that the International Trade Commission has approved our amended designs and we do not anticipate any impact on our ability to import or sell our products. We will continue to investigate and defend ourselves against Sonos’ frivolous claims about our partnership and intellectual property.

According to this message on the Google Nest community, Google is going to make some changes to device setup and speaker groups. If you’re using the speaker group feature to control the volume in the Google Home app, through the Google Assistant, or directly on your Nest Hub display, here’s what you need to do.

• To adjust the volume of your speaker groups, you need to adjust each speaker individually instead of using the group volume control. You can no longer change the volume of your speaker group using your phone’s physical volume knob.

If you have a smart speaker from a brand such as Lenovo or JBL, it is important to update it. You can find more information about this in this message.

We hope that the change above is not the alternative that Google is working on, because then the speaker group function will no longer work as it should. We’ll keep you posted on the progress of this legal matter between Sonos and Google.