Sonos has accused Google of copying its technology during their partnership. Credit: charlesdeluvio on Unsplash.

US technology giant Google has been ordered to pay $32.5m in damages to Sonos, a smart speaker maker, over patent infringement.

According to the verdict issued by a San Francisco federal jury, one of the two Sonos patents at issue in the trial was violated by Google’s smart speakers and media players.

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The case is part of an extensive intellectual property dispute between the former partners, which involves other lawsuits in the US, Canada, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, Reuters reported.

The two companies had partnered to incorporate Google’s streaming music service into Sonos speakers in 2013.

In 2020, Sonos launched legal action against Google by filing patent infringement lawsuits in Los Angeles and with the US International Trade Commission (ITC).

Sonos alleged that Google copied its technology during their partnership involving devices such as Chromecast Audio and Google Home.

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Last year, a temporary import ban on some Google products was granted to Sonos by the ITC, a decision that Google has appealed.

In response, Google filed its patent litigation in California and before the ITC in August 2022, alleging that Sonos had used its technology in its smart speakers.

Responding to the decision, according to Reuters, a Google spokesperson said that the case was a “narrow dispute about some very specific features that are not commonly used,” and that the company was mulling its future moves.

The decision “re-affirms that Google is a serial infringer of our patent portfolio,” a Sonos representative was quoted by the news agency as saying.