ITC Denied Google Request to Donate Infringing Goods to Nonprofits

In granting Sonos the cease and desist order it sought on Google smart speakers, phones and other devices found to infringe five Sonos multiroom audio patents, the International Trade Commission, in a previously undisclosed ruling, denied Google’s request for an exemption to donate the infringing products in its “significant” domestic inventory to nonprofits, said the ITC’s opinion posted Tuesday in docket 337-TA-1191. The opinion details the ITC’s “reasoning in support of its final determination,” issued in a sparse public notice Jan. 6 (see 2201070022), that Google violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act. “Sonos raises a number of questions regarding the scope of the requested exemption that remain unanswered because Google did not request this exemption until remedy briefing before the Commission,” said the opinion. The ITC “agrees with Sonos that the proposed, unbounded exemption could enable Google to flood the market with infringing devices, thus inflicting harm on Sonos notwithstanding” the CDO and the other remedies imposed, it said. “Google has failed to provide any evidence to support its assertion that the exemption it seeks” would result in no cost or harm to Sonos, it said.