Google Keeps Tribunal Win Over One Sonos Patent at Fed. Cir.

Sonos Inc. failed to convince the Federal Circuit an administrative tribunal wrongly invalidated a patent for a networked speaker system that Google LLC had challenged.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board correctly concluded that Sonos’ US Patent No. 9,967,615—filed in 2015 and issued in 2018—was obvious in light of earlier innovations, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Wednesday.

In an opinion by Circuit Judge Kara F. Stoll, the three-judge appellate panel rejected Sonos’ contentions that the PTAB’s decision wasn’t supported by substantial evidence that a “person of ordinary skill in the art” would’ve been motivated ...