Sonos has been in the audio business for enough years to have enough patents to protect its own products, and it was precisely one of those patents that caused the current war against Google. A war that, at least publicly, they started from Sonos following the operation of Google Home.
Sonos won the first game and that forced Google to change the way your Google Homes connect to each other. But Google has now launched a counterattack
Episode 5: Google Strikes Back
Like we said, Sonos sued Google for infringement of one of his patents following the system used by Google Home to connect with each other and coordinate in teams of multiple devices. The company won the lawsuit and that forced Google to design a new system, which had already been rolled out, which didn’t stop the Nest division’s speaker experience from getting worse.
Now Google is taking the initiative and confirmed to The Verge that it has filed two lawsuits against Sonos. Google says Sonos infringes seven of its patents with its smart speakers. Patents that are infringed both in how to detect speech in the presence of groups of speakers
The patents related to voice detection relate to the system used by Sonos to detect the keyword or wake word when there is a speaker system. In this case, the system detects the keyword and must decide which of the connected speakers is responsible for responding to the user’s request. Google claims the system infringes several of its patents.
It’s curious that two companies that had a seemingly good relationship like Google and Sonos, and the latter has supported the expansion of Google Assistant since its origins, are now locked in these lawsuits and against legal action. “Sonos launched an aggressive and deceptive campaign against our products, at the expense of our mutual customers“, they say of a Google that is now waging its particular revenge.
Through | The edge
