US jury says Google owes Sonos $32.5 million in smart-speaker patent case

Alphabet Inc’s Google must pay $32.5 million in damages for infringing one of smart-speaker maker Sonos Inc’s patents in its wireless audio devices, a San Francisco federal jury decided on Friday.

The case is part of a sprawling intellectual property dispute between the former collaborators that includes other lawsuits in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The companies previously worked together to integrate Mountain View, California-based Google’s streaming music service into Sonos products. Sonos first sued Google for patent infringement in Los Angeles and at the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2020, accusing the tech giant of copying its technology during their collaboration in devices including Google Home and Chromecast Audio.