
Sonos sues Google for allegedly stealing smart speaker tech - mikece
https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/7/21055048/sonos-google-lawsuit-sues-speakers-assistant-amazon
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Fej
> The lawsuit cites numerous news reports that point out similarities between
> Google’s new product features and systems that Sonos had already pioneered,
> including synchronizing audio across groups of speakers, adjusting the group
> volume, and setting up devices on a local wireless network.

This makes Sonos sound like a common patent troll. Sounds like sour grapes to
me.

I remember iTunes doing synchronized audio _well_ years ago and Sonos didn't
make a peep.

~~~
peapicker
Apple released the airport express with an audio out and did synchronization
with audio playing from the computer audio outs a full year(2004) before
Sonos's first product hit the market (2005).

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ilamont
_Sonos claims that Amazon has also violated its patents with the Echo device
family, but the Times writes that its executives decided against “battling two
tech giants in court at once.”_

This seems unusual, considering how much is at stake.

Or are there other reasons that Sonos wants to avoid suing Amazon at the same
time (cases being combined, hoping for a successful outcome in the Google case
to get Amazon to settle, etc.)

~~~
nickthegreek
Amazon would probably pull sonos from their site. They have been known to play
dirty in this market before..

