Sonos Google feud is really about platform power

Yesterday, Sonos filed two lawsuits against Google over its wireless speaker tech. The company alleges that Google infringed on patents for syncing a group of speakers over a local network, an idea that Sonos pioneered before Google followed up with products like the Home and Home Mini.

It’s not the first time Sonos has filed a lawsuit over patent infringement. But patents don’t look like the heart of the issue here. The real fight with Google is about monopolies and modern computing — and a world where a few huge companies run locked-down ecosystems and can simply consume their competition.

Big companies copying smaller ones is nothing new. Plenty of startups like Sonos have innovative ideas, only to see larger competitors launch...

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