Now there’s a tongue twister.
Sonos has a history of being the first audio company to bring streaming via iPhones, Apps and PC’s/Mac’s to the Smart Home. Sonos built up a lot of the design and engineering totally by themselves, they have made sure to patent their inventions along the way and they feel that multi room audio company Bluesound has trodden on their feet sufficiently to decide to take them to court.
Bluesound sell a range of speakers that Sonos claim violate at least 7 different patents of theirs including the control of volume across multiple speakers in a group, synchronisation of music within a smart home and playback in multiple areas simultaneously.
“Instead of innovating to compete fairly with Sonos, Defendants have merely copied Sonos.”
Bluesounds website describes their system as;
Multi-room Music. The Hi-Res Way.
Bluesound is an award-winning wireless hi-res sound system that lets you play music in any and every room throughout your home. Choose music from your favorite streaming service or from a music library connected to your home network. Control where, at what volume, and when music plays with a free BluOS app for your smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. Getting the kind of crisp and detailed sound that only an audiophile-grade system can deliver has never been easier.
The owner of Bluesound is Lenbrook industries, they were initially doing business as a Sonos distributor before they launched their own product line in 2013.
Sonos patented a lot of it’s networked audio technology back in 2002 when they were pioneering digital multi room audio, in 2004 they sued Denon over their HEOS range of wifi speakers. That lawsuit ended up settling out of court last year after the courts seemed to generally side with Sonos.