Judge Slams Sonos, Rules Patents Invalid in Google Speaker Case

A pair of Sonos Inc. patents covering the management of smart speakers in a multiroom system were deemed unenforceable by a federal court months after a $32.5 million jury verdict in their favor against Google was vacated.

Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that Sonos filed provisional applications for US Patent Nos. 10,848,885 and 10,469,966 in 2006, but waited over 13 years to file their completed applications. “The industry had already marched on and put the claimed invention into practice,” Alsup said in his order dated Oct. 6.

Alsup pointed ...