Sonos Secures Appellate Victory Restoring $32.5M Verdict in Patent Battle with Google

American Lawyer recognized the win in its Litigators of the Week column

• Sonos achieved a crucial appellate victory, in which the Federal Circuit overturned a lower court decision that had invalidated Sonos's $32.5 million jury verdict against Google.
• Two years ago, a federal judge in California set aside the jury verdict, ruling that two of Sonos's smart speaker technology patents were unenforceable under the theory of prosecution laches, which refers to an allegedly unreasonable delay in patent prosecution. The court also found the two patents invalid for inadequate written description.
• Last week, the Federal Circuit reversed on both fronts. It found that Google could not show prejudice from any delay in Sonos's patent prosecution, noting that the relevant applications were publicly available as early as 2013 - years before Google's product investments.
• A lot was at stake in this appeal for the broader patent system. The lower court's ruling with respect to laches had sparked serious concern in the innovation community. Inventors, especially in smaller companies, rely on exactly the sort of continuation practices that Sonos followed here.

The Orrick team was led by partners Josh Rosenkranz and Libby Moulton with support from Alyssa Caridis, Clem Roberts and Geoff Moss, and associates Lauren Weber, Nick Gonzalez, Sachi Schuricht and Joey Kolker.