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If the patent didn't cover adjusting the volume for a group of speakers, why did Google have to disable it? While the patent portfolio did include other things,
by mattmcknight 5y ago
If the patent didn't cover adjusting the volume for a group of speakers, why did Google have to disable it? While the patent portfolio did include other things, Google is being forced to disable the basic, obvious feature.
- zaarn 5y agoGoogle is not being forced to disable this feature, Google decided to. They could have paid royalties to Sonos for implementing the feature like they did, after all.
- mattmcknight 5y ago> They could have paid royalties to Sonos for implementing the feature That's an assumption. You don't know how much Sonos was asking. In addition, companies can choose to not license a patent to their competitors.
- zaarn 5y agoNo that's not the problem. Google already implemented the feature and made money of it. They do owe royalties to Sonos.
- alistairSH 5y agoThe patents did cover controlling volume across the group, but there was more to it (see the 5 patents linked elsewhere in this discussion).
- mattmcknight 5y agoI know there was "more to it", but this claim of the patent could have been invalidated. It seems like the court's interpretation is that Sonos owns the entire process of grouping speakers and changing the volume for that group, which is a very obvious claim.