ITC to Review Sonos v. Google
- Paul Thurrott
- Nov 20, 2021
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The International Trade Commission said that it would review parts of a judge’s findings in the Sonos patent infringement case against Google. It is doing so at the request of both companies, each of which asked the ITC to review the parts of the judge’s findings that went against them.
As you may recall, the ITC’s chief administrative law judge found in August that all five of the Sonos patents in this case are valid and that Google infringes on all of them with its smart speakers and Chromecast devices. The full Commission had promised to issue a final ruling in this case—which could lead to Google’s infringing products being banned for import into the United States—in December. This additional review will push back the final ruling date to January 6, the ITC said.
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“We are pleased that the Commission will be affirming the [judge’s] ruling that all five Sonos patents at issue are valid and that Google infringes all five of those patents,” a Sonos statement notes. “We also look forward to engaging further with the Commission on the details of the remedy to which we are entitled, and pursuing our damages case in District Court.”
The ITC said it will review whether the products accused of infringing two of the patents “infringe at the time of importation.” And it confirmed that an import ban was possible in its final ruling.
“We compete on the quality of our products and the merits of our ideas,” a Google spokesperson said. “We disagreed with the preliminary ruling and will continue to make our case in the review process.”