Denon loses to Sonos in Patent Infringement fight

[Johnny2Bad]

December 15 2017

DENON (D+M Holdings) has lost every count (23 in all) in a Patent Dispute with SONOS regarding DENON's HEOS Multi-Room Wireless speaker products. All of SONOS' disputed patents were held to be infringed upon and all of DENON's claims of Patent Invalidity were defeated.

Damages of $US 2 Million were awarded.

As always, there is the possibility of appeal, but the overwhelming jury verdict on all issues in the dispute doesn't bode well for DENON prevailing, at perhaps higher cost of litigation. So they may continue the fight, feeling the market potential is large enough to warrant digging their heels in, or they may decide to cut their losses and move on. We'll know soon enough once the period for appeal arrives and expires later in 2018.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Wow! I wonder what that means for the current crop of Heos owners and how they will be impacted. I really think this comes as no real surprise if Sonos has a number of patents on their distribution and control tech. Wondering if they are bringing a suit against any of the other companies who have been toying with streaming tech. Sony certainly has their product lineup as well, but it seems far more disjointed than what Sonos has been doing, and not at all as streamlined as what Heos appeared to be.

 

[DigitalDawn]

Is Denon going to pay royalties now, or will they have to stop selling Heos?