Judge overturns Google's $32.5 million fine in patent battle with Sonos

[Inviteshop]

A California federal judge has overturned a $32.5 million jury verdict that speaker maker Sonos won against Google earlier this year. This decision is a drastic reversal and a major setback for Sonos in the ongoing patent dispute between the companies.

In a decision on Friday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that two Sonos patents asserted against Google Home devices are invalid. Alsup harshly criticized Sonos, saying the company unfairly tried to claim priority on patents well after Google's technology was already in use.

According to Alsup, Sonos improperly linked patent applications filed in 2019 to a much older 2006 provisional filing in an attempt to allege Google was infringing. The judge accused Sonos of making quiet amendments and waiting over 13 years to raise infringement concerns against Google.

In a blog post, Google wrote;

In fact, in 2014, five years before Sonos filed the applications and presented the claims, accused infringer Google LLC shared with Sonos a plan for a product that would practice what would become the claimed invention… Google then began introducing its own products that practiced the invention in 2015. Even so, Sonos waited until 2019 to pursue claims on the invention (and until 2020 to roll out the invention in its own product line).​

Alsup warned Sonos not to rely on the earlier jury verdict, which found Google infringed five Sonos patents, if it decides to pursue other companies for patent infringement. The judge said it would be a "miscarriage of justice" if Sonos used that verdict, given the patents are now deemed invalid.

It would be a miscarriage of justice for Sonos to assert that this district judge has already found that written description was adequate when, with the benefit of the trial record, it has since become evident that it was inadequate.​

While Sonos plans to appeal the ruling, it represents a major win for Google in the ongoing global patent war.