SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Google has escalated its two-year legal feud with Sonos over smart speaker technology, claiming its competitor and past partner made false claims about their “shared work” in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court.
Google, which has been accused of copying Sonos’ design for wireless speakers, contends in a new complaint that Sonos is using Google’s speaker innovations without permission and infringing its patents for wireless charging and voice command features like hot-word detection.
The tech giant says it partnered with Sonos in 2013 to help its home speaker system work with Google Play Music, and in 2016 Sonos again asked for Google's support in getting its speakers to integrate with Google's voice-activated Assistant.
Two years ago, Sonos sued Google in Los Angeles federal court for using that partnership to get a peek at its technology and using it to launch its own smart speaker, Chromecast Audio, and later Google Home.
Now Google claims Sonos took advantage of Google’s largesse in helping Sonos improve its products and used Google’s technology without permission in introducing wireless charging and voice control features for a number of portable speaker products like Sonos Move, Sonos Roam, Sonos Roam SL, Sonos Arc, Sonos Beam, and Sonos One.
“While Google rarely sues other companies for patent infringement, it must assert its intellectual property rights here,” Google says in its complaint.
But this is not the first time Google has asserted...
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