Allegations that Google smart speakers and other products infringe Sonos multiroom audio patents are based on “revisionist history,” said Google in docket 337-TA-1191 at the International Trade Commission in its first official reply (login required) to the Jan. 7 Sonos complaint. Commissioners voted Feb. 5 to open an investigation into the complaint (see 2002060070), which seeks an import ban on a wide variety of allegedly infringing Google products. Google “did not obtain ‘deep’ access to Sonos technology" and then develop the Google Chromecast products at issue, as Sonos alleges, it said Thursday. “Google launched Chromecast before Google and Sonos ever agreed to collaborate.” When they began working together, Sonos repeatedly asked for Google’s “assistance,” it said. “Google was willing to help. Google gave Sonos significant assistance designing, implementing, and testing a solution that would bring Google’s voice recognition software to Sonos’s devices.” Sonos seems to think that “no good deed should go unpunished,” said Google. “Sonos now asks the Commission to impose sweeping remedial orders barring the importation of multiple Google products,” it said. “There is no basis for Sonos’s claims. The technologies Google uses were all independently developed by Google.” Sonos didn’t comment Friday.

Litigation on alleged copyright violation of a work can still go ahead even if the Copyright Office refused the application to register the work, but the agency must be notified about the suit, Assistant General Counsel Jordana Rubel blogged Thursday. Starting May 26, those complaints can be emailed to 411notices@copyright.gov instead of sending a paper copy through the mail, she said. Complaint copies also must be sent to the U.S. attorney for the district where the court is located and DOJ, she said. CO notification allows it to decide if it wants to participate in the suit and explain to the court why it didn't believe the work was copyrightable, she said.

Sonos plans to produce “relevant” evidence to “establish” that Google is guilty of Tariff Act Section 337 violations through the “unlawful importation” of smart speakers and other goods that infringe its multiroom audio patents, said Sonos in a joint discovery statement (login required) it and Google filed Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1191 at the International Trade Commission. Google denies the allegations, saying the Sonos patents are “invalid,” but will produce evidence “concerning the proper scope of any remedy” if the ITC decides in favor of Sonos, it said. Commissioners voted Feb. 5 to open an investigation into the Sonos complaint, which seeks an import ban on a wide range of Google products (see 2002060070). Google served Sonos Feb. 13 with discovery requests for 16 classifications of evidence, including information on “the alleged significant investment in plant and equipment” Sonos spent to bring its multiroom audio products to market and how many employees it hired, said the statement. Sonos also served Google with discovery papers, but the statement didn’t say when it did so or what it asked for. Sonos and Google agree to “participate in settlement conferences and mediation,” and will “explore reasonable possibilities for settlement,” they said.

The Supreme Court Monday declined to hear Apple’s appeal in a patent dispute with security software company poll (docket 19-832). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last year ordered Apple to pay VirtnetX $439.7 million for using VirtnetX security technology without permission on FaceTime.

China and India should be removed from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s priority watch list for intellectual property infringement, officials in those countries recently told USTR. Comments were due Thursday for USTR’s 2020 Special 301 Review (see 2002070032). China and India cited strong IP protections and reforms, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce noted both continue to score poorly on the International IP Index. China’s overall score increased from 47.7% in the seventh edition to 51% in the eighth edition, the Chamber said. India’s score increased from 36% to 38.5%. The U.S. score increased from 94.8% to 95.3%. “Despite some positive -- albeit incremental -- changes in China, we continue to advocate for bold reforms that will result in meaningful changes for foreign companies,” the U.S. said. China cited a “firm attitude toward IP protection, with well-established and constantly developing IP legal system,” China said, citing what it called a fair and impartial judicial protection for IP rights. India cited “extensive initiatives taken to reinforce its IPR laws as well as to protect patents and all IP forms in the country.” SoundExchange targeted six countries denying American music performers and producers about $170 million annually in royalties: U.K., Australia, Canada, France, Japan and the Netherlands.

Google's “unauthorized use” of Oracle computer code doesn’t fall under the “four-part fair use test used” by courts in copyright cases, the News Media Alliance said in a filing in a Supreme Court case Wednesday. The organization compared the use to Google’s “widespread and unauthorized use of news media content and its effect on the news media industry.”

The Copyright Office published a final rule Wednesday, setting adjusted fees, with an average increase of 41% proposed across the board. It is meant to “account for inflationary increases and the expected cost of information technology modernization over the next several years, and to more fully recover the costs of registration and recordation,” the CO said. The rule takes effect March 20.

Sonos and Google face a Feb. 26 filing deadline for a joint discovery statement in their patent dispute at the International Trade Commission, said an order (login required) in docket 337-TA-1191 signed Tuesday by Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock. The ITC voted last week to open a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Sonos allegations that Google smart speakers and other devices infringe its multiroom audio patents (see 2002060070). The joint discovery statement instructs the companies to state their positions on a wide variety of procedural issues, including any recommended limits on documents or witnesses, plus an estimated target date when the investigation will be completed and whether any settlement discussions are planned. The Sonos complaint seeks a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against the allegedly infringing products.

Sonos is “pleased” the International Trade Commission “confirmed it will initiate a formal investigation into all of our claims asserting Google blatantly infringed our intellectual property,” emailed a spokesperson Friday. “We’ll fully cooperate throughout the duration of the investigation and feel confident about the merit of our case.” The ITC voted 4-0 to open a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Sonos allegations that Google smart speakers and other devices infringe its multiroom audio patents (see 2002060070). The agency declined comment Friday on Commissioner Rhonda Schmidtlein’s recusal from the vote. The investigation was assigned to Chief Administrative Law Judge Charles Bullock, said a notice to the parties.

Xperi announced a patent and license agreement with SK hynix, for semiconductor intellectual property and a technology transfer of Invensas DBI Ultra 3D interconnect technology for memory chips. The DBI Ultra die-to-wafer hybrid bonding 3D interconnect technology platform enables eight-, 12- and 16-high chip stacks within packaging height and performance requirements for high-performance computing, Xperi said Friday.