Google Faces Fierce Trial Over Sonos Smart-Speaker Patents

Sonos Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google are set to clash over millions in royalties for smart-speaker technologies, with a federal jury trial beginning Monday in a case criticized as typifying “the worst of patent litigation.”

Jurors in the US District Court for the Northern District of California will hear one big part of a sprawling global battle between the tech rivals. If Sonos prevails, royalties awarded in the case could influence its ability to seek similar amounts from other companies that allegedly rely on the same technology.

Google and Sonos once partnered to integrate Google Play Music into Sonos products, ...