Google Accused of Infringing Smart Thermostat Patent (Corrected)

Google‘s Nest thermostats allegedly infringe patents covering smart home energy-saving technology, according to a complaint filed in Texas federal court.

Among other things, EcoFactor Inc. says Google technology that changes a thermostat’s temperature based on whether a building is occupied and compares internal and external temperatures to determine when to turn an HVAC system on or off infringes four of its patents.

EcoFactor also sued five other smart thermostat makers Friday for infringing the same patents.

EcoFactor says its “patented big-data analytics and machine learning algorithms” collect and process energy data. The complaint says its platform “actively manages thermostats ...