Sonos had asked the trade commission to block imports of Google products that the speaker company says infringes on its patents. They include Google Home smart speakers, Pixel phones and computers, and Google’s Chromecast streaming video device. Those items are made in China and shipped to the United States.
With technology conglomerates under scrutiny from regulators and politicians, smaller rivals are challenging the business practices of the industry’s biggest companies in court. Epic Games, creator of the popular Fortnite game, filed a lawsuit against Apple and Google over App Store commissions. Facebook, now renamed Meta, was sued in November by a now-defunct photo-sharing app called Phhhoto, which asserted that Facebook violated antitrust laws.
Sonos has claimed that it shared details of its technology with Google starting in 2013 when the two companies started working together. Initially, Google was not a competitor, but the company started moving into Sonos’s space — first with a small device to stream music in 2015 and then its Google Home speaker in 2016.
Sonos said Google was violating more than 100 of its patents and proposed a licensing deal to Google. The two companies were unable to reach an agreement.
Sonos also has two pending patent infringement lawsuits against Google in federal court. The first case, filed in January 2020 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, is stayed pending the International Trade Commission decision since they involve overlapping patents. A second case before the U.S. District Court in San Francisco is proceeding, involving a different set of patents.