3 ms·
Google participated in industrial espionage while having talks with Sonos, then implemented what they've learned in their products. That's patents working as de
by SSLy 5y ago
Google participated in industrial espionage while having talks with Sonos, then implemented what they've learned in their products. That's patents working as designed.
Back in 2013, while Google was considering how it could make its music streaming service work on Sonos' speakers, the latter company gave the search giant an inside look at its technology. At the time, it didn't seem like a big deal. Google wasn't making speakers, and it wasn't in the smart home business at all. It would be another year before it bought Nest as a way to get into the hardware business. Sonos says that as a result of that inside look, Google "blatantly and knowingly" copied its technology and included it in its own products.
- creato 5y agoIf that were the case, we'd be talking about something more substantive than the UI for grouping speakers together.
- tssva 5y agoWhen the patent case was originally filed Sonos claimed in their press releases that Google even used the same protocol to talk to their speakers that Sonos does. Insinuating that Google stole the protocol. That was actually part of the lawsuit they filed though. The reason why is because the protocols in question are standard UPnP protocols used by most network media devices.
- jollybean 5y agoWhat part of 'changing the volume on all speakers at once' is 'industrial espionage'?
- monocasa 5y agoA court hasn't seen any of this yet. It was an ITC commission which takes claims of these types at face value with the assumption that disputes can hit the court system.