Academia, Consultants Among Expert Sonos Witnesses in ITC Google Probe

Two computer science professors with backgrounds in the “technical analysis of audio players,” controllers and components top the list of seven expert witnesses Sonos plans to call in the International Trade Commission’s Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations that Google devices infringe five Sonos multiroom audio patents. Kevin Almeroth, a professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara, represented Jawbone in its ITC patent fight against Fitbit over fitness trackers (see 1608300035), said documents (login required) filed Friday in docket 337-TA-1191. University of Minnesota professor Jon Weissman represented Facebook against allegations it stole BlackBerry mobile-computing applications, said the filings. The other experts are independent consultants with backgrounds in engineering, patent monetization and statistical analyses, they said. One consultant, Marc Levitt, spent seven years in the 1990s as senior hardware engineer at Sun Microsystems. Another, Cole Hershkowitz, leads a team building a mobile app for Blue Cross of Idaho. The Sonos ITC complaint seeks cease and desist and limited exclusion orders against Google smart speakers and other devices (see 2002060070).