US trade panel opens patent probe into Google speakers – Hardware

The US International Trade Fee mentioned on Thursday it was launching a patent investigation into selected audio players and controllers bought by Google primarily based on a complaint by rival wise speaker maker Sonos .

The ITC gained a complaint from Sonos previous thirty day period alleging that the import of selected audio players and controllers and their factors infringe on its patents.

Sonos at the time also filed a patent infringement lawsuit in opposition to Google in US District Courtroom in Los Angeles and testified to a Residence of Reps antitrust subcommittee about its frustrations with Google.

“Sonos has manufactured misleading statements about our heritage of doing work with each other. Our engineering and units ended up intended independently. We deny their statements vigorously, and will be defending in opposition to them,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda mentioned in a statement on Thursday.

The ITC has in some cases issued orders banning products and solutions from US entry on the grounds they infringe US patents. The threat of this sort of bans, regarded as exclusion orders, can be leverage in settlement discussions.

But firms subject matter to the bans are often in a position to hold importing products and solutions by redesigning them to stay clear of working with patented engineering.

Sonos spokesperson Erin Pategas mentioned the corporation was happy that the ITC will look into “all of our statements asserting Google blatantly infringed our intellectual property. We’ll totally cooperate all through the duration of the investigation and come to feel confident about the merits of our situation.”

The maker of high quality dwelling speaker units has mentioned Google copied its engineering for connecting with each other multiple speakers through partnership discussions. Some Sonos speakers include things like voice assistant engineering from Google and Amazon.

Google separately sells its individual Nest wise speakers, a lot of of which are more affordable than Sonos speakers and also include things like Google Assistant engineering and multi-gadget connection abilities.

The research huge has disputed Sonos’ infringement statements.

Sonos on Wednesday documented fourth-quarter revenue that defeat expectations.

Google on Monday mentioned its components sales declined in the fourth quarter from a year ago.