ITC Ends Investigation on Audio Players After Finding No Section 337 Violation
The International Trade Commission has ended a Section 337 investigation on imported audio players and components (ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1329), it said in a Federal Register notice to be published April 14. Complainant Google initially alleged in 2022 that Sonos' audio players infringed several of Google's patents covering speech recognition and hot word detection on multiple devices (see 2209150021).
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In May 2024, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued a ruling "concluding that all of the challenged claims of the asserted patents are unpatentable." The administrative law judge then granted Sonos’s motion to terminate the investigation for “good cause” in view of the PTAB’s finding of invalidity.
The ITC determined "sua sponte" to review, in part, the judge's ruling of termination for “good cause.” The Commission found that there is "no basis in either Commission precedent or the Commission’s rules to terminate an investigation based on a PTAB final written decision that may still be appealed." The Commission then determined to vacate the judge's termination for “good cause,” and terminated the investigation based on the finding of no violation.