Sonos wins first round in patent case against Google at ITC

Bloomberg

Sonos Inc shares jumped as the wireless audio company came one step closer to winning a global battle with Alphabet Inc’s Google when a US trade judge found the search giant infringes five Sonos patents — a decision that could shut some Google smart home devices, phones and laptops out of the US market.
US International Trade Commission Judge Charles Bullock announced his findings in a
one-paragraph notice on the agency’s website. The judge’s full decision won’t be available until both sides get a chance to redact confidential information.
Sonos rose more than 5% in after-hours trading on the news.
The judge’s findings are subject to review by the full commission, which is scheduled to issue a final decision by December 13 and has the power to block imports of a wide range of Google products, including the Home and Chromecast systems, and Pixel phones and laptops. Google said it’s confident it will ultimately prevail.
“We do not use Sonos’ technology, and we compete on the quality of our products and the merits of our ideas,” said José Castañeda, a Google spokesman. “We disagree with this preliminary ruling and will continue to make our case in the upcoming review process.”
Investors have been watching the ITC case closely, seeing it as a test of Santa Barbara, California-based Sonos’ ability to enforce its intellectual property, protect its market from competitors and develop a new revenue stream in licensing. Sonos and Google have traded patent-infringement allegations in the US and Europe and Bullock’s findings were the first major test of Sonos’s case.
Google is accused of ripping off Sonos designs since 2015, when the two were working together on ways to integrate Google Play Music into Sonos’ products. Google denied infringing the patents and said they covered old ideas.
“We are pleased the ITC has confirmed Google’s blatant infringement of Sonos’ patented inventions,” Chief Legal Officer Eddie Lazarus said in a statement. “This decision re-affirms the strength and breadth of our portfolio, marking a promising milestone in our long-term pursuit to defend our innovation against misappropriation by
Big Tech monopolies.” Google, based in Mountain View, California, also told Bullock it can easily make software changes to avoid the patents and asked him to weigh in on those redesigns.