Sonos made quite a splash in January when it sued Google for allegedly stealing its intellectual property. Now, Google is returning the favor.
Google filed a patent infringement lawsuit against smart speaker maker Sonos on Thursday, reports The Verge, escalating an ongoing legal dispute between the companies.
“We are disappointed that Sonos has made false claims about our work together and technology. We are reluctantly defending ourselves by asserting our patent rights,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda told Business Insider in a statement.
In the complaint, Google accused Sonos of using “substantial volumes” of its technology, including “patented Google innovations in search, software, networking, audio processing, and digital media management and streaming,” without its permission.
“Sonos is actively infringing Google’s intellectual property,” Google said in the lawsuit, which was filed in a San Francisco federal court. “Sonos has no license to use Google’s patents. Because Sonos refuses to cease its infringement, and is unwilling to recognize the value of Google’s technology through a license, Google has filed this suit to protect its intellectual property.”
In the original January lawsuit, Sonos alleges that Google infringed on five different Google patents, including mesh networking, echo cancellation, DRM, content notifications, and personalized search.
In its initial lawsuit, Sonos claimed that during the time it had been partnered with Google to bring Google Play Music and Google Assistant to the platform, Google allegedly gathered knowledge about Sonos’ wireless audio system that it then used to create its own line of multi-room speakers.
