Sonos secures a victory in audio patent fight against Google

The years-long legal drama resulting from a brief fling between Google and smart speaker maker Sonos has resulted in another loss for the Chocolate Factory, which had its claims of copyright infringement tossed out by a US International Trade Commission (ITC) judge Friday.  Google's ITC complaint [PDF] alleging four violated …

[t245t]

The patent system is not fit for purpose.

US-11024311-B2: “The various implementations described herein include methods and systems for determining device leadership among voice interface devices”

So, you got two microphones and the “invention” decides which one has priority. The patent system is not fit for purpose.

[ragnar]

Re: The patent system is not fit for purpose.

Google seems to have got much worse than this lately, since they stopped using the "invention" maybe? Hey Google? <speaker in other room answers, not the one next to me>.

[DryBones]

Re: The patent system is not fit for purpose.

I hope not. The concept that, "The microphone that has the input at the highest amplitude s probably the closest and therefore the correct one" is classified as Fucking Duh, and should not be patentable. And no, nifty bits about normalizing and going between different mics doesn't make it novel. That's called calibration, and should be done in any device that provides amplitude.

[John Brown (no body)]

Cleary, more moeny than sense

"This is the fifth jurisdiction (including Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and France) in which Google has sued Sonos and lost."

You lost everywhere else and yet still they keep trying! And their final comment is that they might try again! FFS, Google, just pay up and be done with it! OMG! This is turning into a Yahoo! comment!

[darklord]

Re: Cleary, more moeny than sense

Google dont need to pay ( unless SONOS gets costs awarded, Google sued Sonos for breach and damages not the other way round.

Still a stupid stunt to stay in the limelight by google (as if they need it).

Another pointless lawsuit like the Samsung /Apple round edges debacle.

Still I dont use either system, I hate the annoying Google/Amazon devices answering me tried one once said nope that'll be annoying and I like Hifi so that counts SONOS out.

[RLWatkins]

Lots of patenting prior art, and patenting the obvious going on here.

Then again, that's what the tech "industry" does.

Remember when Amazon filed a "business method patent" on the use of cookies to keep track of the logged-in user, so they could implement an on-line charge account? When charge accounts have been around for over a hundred years. When cookies were devised for exactly that sort of use.

So Sonos and Google have patented... attaching more than one speaker to a system, attaching more than one microphone to a system, and what else?

If you can't patent the screwdriver, patent *the use of the screwdriver to drive screws*.

I guess business these days is more about getting money than about earning money by adding value.

Hell is full, and both the dead, and lawyers, are walking the Earth. We ought to do something about that.