Sonos and Denon have announced that they have reached a settlement over the former’s claims that Denon’s HEOS multi-room audio line infringed its patents.
The ongoing dispute between the two audio powerhouses is finally over, after first coming to light 4 years ago when Sonos first took action against Denon’s previous owner, D&M Holdings (now Sound United of course) over what it viewed as an infringement of “at least four” patents.
Now it appears to be water under the bridge for both parties, and the manufacturing and sales of Denon’s HEOS line will continue as it has done going forward following both parties signing on the dotted line to end the 4-year dispute.
This decision also sees Denon’s upcoming case filed against Sonos dropped as the two manufacturers move forward working (somewhat) harmoniously alongside each other in the market.
In typical Sonos fashion, Sonos blogged about the situation – flagging that the “litigation against Denon brought validation to our beliefs – most notably in a December 2017 jury trial, during which the jury affirmed the validity of three of our foundational patents. When presented with overwhelming evidence of Denon’s intentional and blatant copying, the jury also found that Denon wilfully infringed our patents.” Despite this shade thrown Denon’s way, Sonos says that it had been approached with "what we believed was a fair and favourable resolution” (aka Denon likely offered a “favourable” enough payout to end the legal battle).
Denon’s CEO Kevin Duffy has since come out to state that Denon’s "direction with HEOS is unchanged."