Google is re - adding features to its Google Home ecosystem that were have off due to a letters patent lawsuit involving Sonos . It ’s a profits for Nest exploiter , but it shows that while prominent techcontinues to bickerabout ownership , customers are being stiffed on feature they ’ve come to expect from their products .
In a Tuesday update on the Google Nestblog , the caller enounce those changes made to the Nest speakers , showing , and Chromecast would be change by reversal . Google described those changes as “ where sure devices can only belong to one speaker group at a time in the Google Home app . ” Google originally limited its Nest and Home devices last calendar month in reception to the Sonos patent lawsuit .
This means that Google smart home twist users can once again bestow devices to extra speaker groups , allowing forsynchronous audiothroughout a domicile . Users will no longer run into errors when trying to sum up devices to groups . The update should be live for all Android users on the Home App in the next two days . It should also be uncommitted for iOS users “ soon . ”
Google Nest speakers should once allow users to assign devices into groups.Photo: Andrew Liszewski / Gizmodo
It comes just a few day after a federal judge handed Google a turnaround triumph against Sonos ’ multi - yr patent of invention lawsuit . Sonosoriginally litigate Google for smart speaker patent infringementsback in 2020 , leading Google to snap back with itsown infringement claim . In May , a panel grade Google to pay the utterer company $ 32.5 million in damages for infringing on a patent for Sonos ’ multi - way audio technology .
Then this preceding Friday , U.S. District Judge William Alsup threw that $ 32.5 million finding of fact out the windowpane and said Sonos ’ patent were unenforceable . In hisdecision , he allege Sonos ’ suit was “ not a case of an discoverer leading the industry to something new . This was a type of the diligence lead with something novel and , only then , an inventor come out of the woodwork to say that he had descend up with the idea first . ”
Gizmodo reached out to Sonos for gossip , but we did not immediately listen back . According toReuters , Sonos say it plans to appeal Alsup ’s determination .
The judge additionally called out Sonos for only asserting its claims on the patent of invention in 2019 while the company filed the patents in 2006 .
“ In fact , in 2014 , five geezerhood before Sonos file away the applications and acquaint the title , impeach infringer Google LLC share with Sonos a plan for a product that would practice what would become the claimed innovation . The parties were exploring a possible collaboration , but it never materialized , ” Alsup write in his Friday decision .
Google is taking a victory lap despite Sonos saying it plan to attract Alsup ’s decisiveness . Google ’s general counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado called out Sonos in ablog poston Tuesday . She said Sonos ’ lawsuit was “ specious ” and further call out “ aggressive actors ” abuse the patent of invention arrangement . Prado call for more resources for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that would allow more metre to address “ complex patents . ”
The ongoing patent warfare between the two society have n’t helped consumers one bit . Last class , Google filed its own set of patent infringement claimsagainst its rival relating to its smart assistant technology . Perhaps Google is right-hand , and we desperately need some patent reform , if for no other reason than to stop the Irish bull - inspiration and countenance consumers use all the characteristic that company predict .
Alphabet Inc. AndroidChromecastGoogleGoogle NestSONOS
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