Sonos has opened a legal battle against Lenbrook Industries, the parent company of Bluesound, accusing the company of copyright infringement.
Audio giant, Sonos, holds many patents and the case, which was filed on 20th June in a Californian court, claims that Lenbrook has infringed on seven of those patents with the Bluesound brand.
According to Sonos, the company sent Lenbrook a notice of infringement on 70 patents in November last year, with an additional notice on 45 other patents sent this month.
Lenbrook was previously a distributor of Sonos before launching the competitor brand, Bluesound.
According to a report by Variety, the filed claim reads: “Defendants have had intimate knowledge of Sonos’ wireless audio products and technology since at least 2007, more than six years before defendants released their first Bluesound products. Instead of innovating to compete fairly with Sonos (…) defendants have merely copies Sonos.”
Defending company, Lenbrook has fought back against the claims releasing a statement to oppose the accusations, stating that “it respects the valid intellectual property rights of others, and in fact has entered into many patent licenses over its 40-year history”.
The statement continued to say: “Lenbrook’s high-resolution audio capabilities substantively differentiates Lenbrook’s products from those of Sonos and many other of Sonos’ actual direct competitors.
“Lenbrook believes it is generally recognised by the industry as the first legacy audio company to deliver such a complete and differentiated solution to the audiophile marketplace.”
The company addressed the accusations throughout the statement and ended with: “Lenbrook considers Sonos’ suggestion that its 10-month Canadian distributorship of Sonos products somehow allowed or led Lenbrook to copy Sonos’ designs or ideas to be meritless and damaging to the reputation and value of the Lenbrook enterprise.
“As a respected premium player in the specialised consumer and commercial audio industry, Lenbrook takes its reputation for integrity, partnerships and goodwill seriously and looks forward to a prompt resolution of Sonos’ claims.”