Sonos’ Google Damages Theory Slashed for ‘Smoke and Mirrors’

The federal judge who gutted “a major part” of Sonos Inc.’s damages theory before jurors began deliberating in its patent-infringement trial against Alphabet Inc.’s Google said he struck expert testimony because it “was sleight of hand and smoke and mirrors.”

A San Francisco jury ultimately awarded Sonos $32.5 million for Google’s use of smart-speakertechnology without its former partner’s permission, upholding the validity of an infringed patent but finding computing devices that have or had the Google Home application installed don’t infringe another asserted patent.

Sonos had sought $90 million, even that a small fraction of the $3 billion in ...