Sonos, Inc. v. Google LLC

N OTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.
United States Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit
______________________
SONOS, INC.,
Appellant
v.
GOOGLE LLC,
Appellee
______________________
2023-2040
______________________
Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark
Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in No. IPR2021-
01563.
______________________
Decided: June 18, 2025
______________________
ERIC SHUMSKY , Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP,
Washington, DC, argued for appellant. Also represented
by J ONAS WANG; EDMUND HIRSCHFELD, EMILY VILLANO,
New York, NY; ELIZABETH MOULTON, San Francisco, CA;
G EORGE I. L EE , C OLE BRADLEY R ICHTER , MATTHEW
SAMPSON, I, R ORY P ATRICK SHEA, J OHN D AN SMITH , III,
SEAN MICHAEL SULLIVAN, Lee Sullivan Shea & Smith LLP,
Chicago, IL.
ERIKA ARNER, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 2
& Dunner, LLP, Washington, DC, argued for appellee.
Also represented by U MBER AGGARWAL , D ANIEL C. T UCKER ,
Reston, VA; CORY C. BELL , Boston, MA; K ARA ALLYSE
SPECHT , Atlanta, GA.
______________________
Before P ROST , L INN, and STOLL , Circuit Judges.
S TOLL , Circuit Judge.
Google LLC successfully petitioned for inter partes re-
view of claims 1–2, 6–14, 18–25, and 27–29 of U.S. Patent
No. 9,967,615 owned by Sonos, Inc. The Patent Trial and
Appeal Board held that Google had demonstrated by pre-
ponderant evidence that all challenged claims are un-
patentable as obvious. On appeal, Sonos argues that
certain findings by the Board lack substantial evidence
support. For the reasons that follow, we disagree and af-
firm the Board’s decision.
BACKGROUND
As the parties are familiar with the facts of this case,
we recite here only those facts necessary to frame and de-
cide the issues presented on appeal.
The ’615 patent is titled “Networked Music Playback”
and discloses “[s]ystems, methods, apparatus, and articles
of manufacture to facilitate connection to a multimedia
playback network.” U.S. Patent No. 9,967,615 Title, Ab-
stract (capitalization normalized). The patent “is related
to consumer electronics and, more particularly, to provid-
ing music for playback via one or more devices on a play-
back data network.” ’615 patent col. 1 ll. 13–15. Claims 1
and 9 are representative and provided below with the dis-
puted limitations emphasized.
1. A method comprising:
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 3
. . . detecting, via the control device, a set of inputs
to transfer playback from the control device to a
particular playback device . . .
. . . causing playback to be transferred from the
control device to the particular playback device,
wherein transferring playback from the control de-
vice to the particular playback device comprises:
(a) causing one or more first cloud servers to add
multimedia content to a local playback queue on
the particular playback device, wherein adding the
multimedia content to the local playback queue
comprises the one or more first cloud servers
adding, to the local playback queue, one or more re-
source locators corresponding to respective loca-
tions of the multimedia content at one or more
second cloud servers of a streaming content service;
(b) causing playback at the control device to
be stopped; and
. . . causing the particular playback device to play
back the multimedia content, wherein the particu-
lar playback device playing back the multimedia
content comprises the particular playback device
retrieving the multimedia content from one or
more second cloud servers of a streaming content
service and playing back the retrieved multimedia
content.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein causing one or
more first cloud servers to add the multimedia con-
tent to the local playback queue on the particular
playback device comprises sending a message to
the streaming content service that causes the
one or more first cloud servers to add the multime-
dia content to the local playback queue on the par-
ticular playback device.
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 4
’615 patent cols. 17–19 (emphases added to distinguish
claim limitations in dispute).
Three prior art references are pertinent on ap-
peal: Al-Shaykh,1 Qureshey,2 and Phillips.3 Relevant
here, the Board concluded that Google had demonstrated
that claims 1, 6–13, 18–25, and 27–29 of the ’615 patent
are unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 103 based on a combi-
nation of some or all of these three prior art references.
Sonos appeals. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.
§ 1295(a)(4)(A).
D ISCUSSION
Our court reviews “the Board’s obviousness determina-
tion de novo, but its factual findings for substantial evi-
dence.” Volvo Penta of the Ams., LLC v. Brunswick Corp.,
81 F.4th 1202, 1208 (Fed. Cir. 2023). What a reference
teaches is a question of fact. TriMed, Inc. v. Stryker Corp.,
608 F.3d 1333, 1341 (Fed. Cir. 2010). “Whether a skilled
artisan would have been motivated to combine references”
is also a question of fact that we review for substantial ev-
idence. Elekta Ltd. v. ZAP Surgical Sys., Inc., 81 F.4th
1368, 1374 (Fed. Cir. 2023). “Substantial evidence means
‘such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept
as adequate to support a conclusion.’” Id. at 1373 (quoting
In re Gartside, 203 F.3d 1305, 1312 (Fed. Cir. 2000)).
On appeal, Sonos challenges various findings by the
Board involving the three aforementioned prior art refer-
ences: (1) that a person of ordinary skill in the art would
have been motivated to combine the relevant teachings of
Al-Shaykh and Qureshey to meet the “one or more first
cloud servers” limitation of claim 1; (2) that a person of
1 U.S. Patent Application Publication
No. 2011/0131520.
2 U.S. Patent No. 8,050,652.
3 U.S. Patent No. 8,799,496.
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 5
ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to com-
bine the relevant teachings of Al-Shaykh and Qureshey to
meet the “sending a message to the streaming content ser-
vice” limitation of claim 9; and (3) that Al-Shaykh teaches
“causing playback at the control device to be stopped” as
recited in claim 1, or, in the alternative, that a person of
ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to com-
bine the relevant teachings of Al-Shaykh and Phillips to
meet this limitation. We address each challenge in turn.
I
We first address Sonos’s contention that substantial
evidence does not support the Board’s finding that a person
of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to
modify Al-Shaykh in view of Qureshey to meet claim 1’s
“one or more first cloud servers” limitation. For the follow-
ing reasons, we uphold the Board’s finding.
Al-Shaykh is titled “System and Method for Transfer-
ring Media Content From a Mobile Device to a Home Net-
work,” J.A. 3273 (capitalization normalized), and “relates
to a system and a method which enable a media application
on the mobile device to share media content with rendering
devices [i.e., playback devices, e.g., a television, stereo, or
personal computer (PC)] in the home network.” J.A. 3284
¶¶ 77, 81. Qureshey is titled “Method and Device for an
Internet Radio Capable of Obtaining Playlist Content from
a Content Server” and discloses a “network-enabled audio
device that provides a display device that allows the user
to select playlists of music much like a jukebox.” J.A 3298
(capitalization normalized). Qureshey’s disclosure “relates
to the field of audio file transfers and, more particularly,
relates to the field of management and distribution of audio
files over a computer network such as the Internet.”
J.A. 3350 at 1:21–24. As the Board recognized:
[I]n the combined Al-Shaykh-Qureshey system,
when a set of inputs to transfer playback from the
mobile device to the particular rendering device is
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 6
detected, as disclosed in Al-Shaykh, then the sys-
tem would cause a first cloud server (i.e.,
Qureshey’s [Internet Personal Audio Network
(IPAN)] server) to add [Uniform Resource Locators
(URLs)] associated with the locations of the audio
files to the storage space [] (as disclosed in
Qureshey) in Al-Shaykh’s rendering devices.
J.A. 37 (first alteration in original) (citation omitted).
Sonos begins its argument by asserting that “[t]he
Board failed to cite substantial evidence that a skilled ar-
tisan looking to improve Al-Shaykh would have considered
Qureshey at all.” Appellant’s Br. 44. We reject this con-
tention.
It is undisputed that Al-Shaykh and Qureshey are
analogous art to the ’615 patent. See J.A. 122–34, 443,
3129 ¶ 78 (Google and its expert explaining that Al-Shaykh
and Qureshey are analogous art to the ’615 patent);
J.A. 296 (Board explaining in its decision to institute that
Google’s showing, including on analogous art, was “unop-
posed”); J.A. 353–420, 463–89 (Sonos raising no dispute re-
lated to analogous art in its Patent Owner Response and
Sur-Reply). And “[w]hen the references are all in the same
or analogous fields, knowledge thereof by the hypothetical
person of ordinary skill is presumed.” In re Gorman,
933 F.2d 982, 986 (Fed. Cir. 1991).
Based on the disclosures of Al-Shaykh and Qureshey
and the Declaration of Google’s expert Dr. Harry Bims, the
Board found that Al-Shaykh and Qureshey “are in the
same field of endeavor, deal with similar devices, and are
directed to . . . solving the same or similar problems.”
J.A. 42–43. Contrary to Sonos’s contentions on appeal—
and to the extent that Sonos has not forfeited them—sub-
stantial evidence supports this finding. For example,
Dr. Bims provided detailed testimony that a person of or-
dinary skill in the art would have understood that Al-
Shaykh and Qureshey “enable users to transfer playback
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 7
to various devices and playback content on those devices
from the Internet, which, a [skilled artisan] would under-
stand to provide much greater accessibility to content than
traditional systems that were limited to playback of con-
tent locally stored on the network.” J.A. 3125–26 ¶ 72. He
further testified that a person of ordinary skill in the art
“would understand that both references describe net-
worked media playback systems that include a control de-
vice (such as a PC or mobile device) and one or more
rendering devices.” J.A. 3126 ¶ 73. Moreover, Sonos con-
ceded that Qureshey’s system and approach were “‘well-
known’ by Al-Shaykh’s era.” Appellant’s Reply 15; J.A. 43,
384–86. And, as the Board noted, we have held that
“[t]here is a motivation to combine when a known tech-
nique has been used to improve one device, and a person of
ordinary skill in the art would recognize that it would im-
prove similar devices in the same way, using the prior art
elements according to their established functions.” Intel
Corp. v. PACT XPP Schweiz AG, 61 F.4th 1373, 1380–81
(Fed. Cir. 2023) (citations omitted) (internal quotation
marks omitted); see also In re Inland Steel Co., 265 F.3d
1354, 1362 (Fed. Cir. 2001) (“The motivation to combine
particular references may come from the nature of the
problem to be solved, leading inventors to look to the refer-
ences relating to possible solutions to that problem.” (inter-
nal quotation marks and citation omitted)).
Sonos next asserts that the Board “erroneously found
that a skilled artisan looking to improve Al-Shaykh would
have incorporated Qureshey’s IPAN server in particular.”
Appellant’s Br. 58. Again, we disagree.
Al-Shaykh discloses: (1) that the mobile device may in-
struct the target rendering device (e.g., a PC) to obtain the
media content directly from the media server in the home
network, J.A. 3286 ¶ 96; (2) that the home network may
provide a connection to the Internet, J.A. 3284 ¶ 80; and
(3) that metadata associated with audio media content may
be provided, J.A. 3285 ¶ 87. But Al-Shaykh does not
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 8
disclose further detail on this functionality. Qureshey, on
the other hand, discloses this functionality and provides
further detail not included in Al-Shaykh. For example,
Qureshey discloses:
The user accesses the server site via a PC and the
Internet. From the server site, the user obtains a
list of the devices in his or her Internet Personal
Audio Network (IPAN) and what songs are on
those devices. The IPAN includes an IPAN server,
an IPAN client, and IPAN software stored on the
network-enabled audio device. . . . The IPAN client
and the IPAN server store the name of the song and
the associated Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
J.A. 3351 at 3:34–48; see also, e.g., J.A. 3314, 3352, 3357–
58 at 16:56–17:31 (describing a computing environment of
a network-enabled audio device configuration). Qureshey
further provides that each network-enabled audio device
can store a playlist, associated URLs, and songs within the
playlist. J.A. 3360 at 21:43–50.
Dr. Bims explained that a skilled artisan “would have
modified Al-Shaykh’s system to include features from
Qureshey’s system. Specifically, . . . Al-Shaykh’s system
would incorporate Qureshey’s first cloud server (i.e., the
IPAN server).” J.A. 3145 ¶ 101. He continued:
[A skilled artisan] would have been motivated to
incorporate the back-end server functionality that
enables a rendering device to directly retrieve con-
tent from the Internet to play back, as taught by
Qureshey, into Al-Shaykh’s system . . . .
Al-Shaykh’s rendering devices can directly retrieve
media content from a remote server for playback
but Al-Shaykh does not explain the details on the
back-end functionality that facilitates this transac-
tion. Thus, it is my opinion that a [skilled artisan]
would have looked to similar references in the art
for further disclosures of networked playback
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 9
systems to determine how playback devices within
the systems are able to directly retrieve content
from remote sources, and, thus, a [skilled artisan]
would have found it obvious to combine Al-Shaykh
and Qureshey in this way.
. . . [A skilled artisan] would have been motiv[at]ed
to implement Qureshey’s back-end server function-
ality to improve the system by preventing any dis-
connection or failure of a mobile control device to
impact ongoing playback on the rendering device.
That is, a [skilled artisan] would understand that
the added functionality enables storage of URLs on
the rendering device such that the rendering device
can retrieve the content to be played back without
assistance from the mobile control device. It is my
opinion that a [skilled artisan] would recognize
that such a combination would vastly improve the
user experience by minimizing playback stoppages
at the rendering device.
J.A. 3146–47 ¶¶ 102–03 (citations omitted).
This expert testimony is not conclusory or otherwise
defective, is supported by disclosures in Al-Shaykh and
Qureshey themselves, and the Board was within its discre-
tion to give the expert testimony considerable weight.
Acoustic Tech., Inc. v. Itron Networked Sols., Inc., 949 F.3d
1366, 1376 (Fed. Cir. 2020) (determining that expert testi-
mony constituted substantial evidence of a motivation to
combine prior art references). Accordingly, we hold that
substantial evidence supports the Board’s finding that a
skilled artisan would have been motivated to combine the
relevant teachings of Al-Shaykh and Qureshey, including
Qureshey’s IPAN server, to meet claim 1’s “one or more
first cloud servers” limitation.
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 10
II
Next, we next address Sonos’s contention that substan-
tial evidence does not support the Board’s finding that a
person of ordinary skill in the art would have been moti-
vated to combine the relevant teachings of Al-Shaykh and
Qureshey to meet claim 9’s “sending a message to the
streaming content service” limitation.
Sonos argues that “[t]he Board’s motivation-to-combine
analysis was insufficient twice over,” Appellant’s Br. 69,
but Sonos never raised an argument to the Board related
to motivation-to-combine for claim 9. In its Patent Owner
Response, Sonos argued only that Al-Shaykh’s disclosure
“simply does not amount to the specific functionality re-
quired by claim 9.” J.A. 419–20. In its Sur-Reply, Sonos
argued only that “Al-Shaykh combined with Qureshey does
not satisfy claim 9.” J.A. 489. Accordingly, we agree with
Google that Sonos forfeited the motivation-to-combine ar-
gument it now raises on appeal. “A party forfeits an argu-
ment that it failed to present to the Board because it
deprives the court of the benefit of the Board’s informed
judgment.” Schwendimann v. Neenah, Inc., 82 F.4th 1371,
1380 (Fed. Cir. 2023) (quoting In re NuVasive, Inc.,
842 F.3d 1376, 1380 (Fed. Cir. 2016)) (internal quotation
marks omitted). We thus decline to consider this argument
for the first time on appeal. See Netflix, Inc. v. DivX, LLC,
84 F.4th 1371, 1378 (Fed. Cir. 2023).
III
Finally, we turn to Sonos’s argument that substantial
evidence does not support (1) the Board’s finding that
Al-Shaykh teaches “causing playback at the control device
to be stopped” as recited in claim 1, or (2) its alternative
finding that a person of ordinary skill in the art would have
been motivated to combine the relevant teachings of
Al-Shaykh and Phillips to meet this limitation. For the
reasons that follow, we uphold the first finding by the
Board and, thus, we need not reach the second.
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 11
The Board credited the testimony of Dr. Bims and
found that, “[a]s disclosed in the paragraphs of
Al-Shaykh . . . , Al-Shaykh stops rendering of the media
content on the device currently rendering the media con-
tent when the media content is transferred to a new ren-
dering device.” J.A. 48–49. Al-Shaykh discloses:
[A]n advantage of the present invention is to pro-
vide a system and a method for transferring media
content from a mobile device to a home network
which enable a user to use the mobile device to
start and stop external rendering of the media con-
tent currently selected in a media application exe-
cuted by the mobile device.
J.A. 3283 ¶ 53. Among other things, Al-Shaykh further
provides:
If the transfer of the media content [] is enabled,
the user [] may . . . select a new target rendering
device. As a result, the transfer to and/or the ren-
dering of the media content [] on the initial target
rendering device may be stopped, and/or the trans-
fer to and/or the rendering of the media content []
on the new target rendering device may begin.
J.A. 3293 ¶ 156. Based on these disclosures in Al-Shaykh,
Dr. Bims provided detailed testimony that “Al-Shaykh dis-
closes transferring playback from the control device to the
particular playback device further comprising causing
playback at the control device to be stopped (e.g., enabling
transfer of media content to rendering device stops play-
back at the mobile device).” J.A. 3147–48 ¶¶ 104–06.
Based on the above quoted language in Al-Shaykh and
Dr. Bims’ testimony, we hold that substantial evidence
supports the Board’s finding that Al-Shaykh teaches “caus-
ing playback at the control device to be stopped” as recited
in claim 1. As such, we need not reach the Board’s alterna-
tive finding.
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SONOS, INC. v. GOOGLE LLC 12
CONCLUSION
We have considered Sonos’s remaining arguments and
are unpersuaded. For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the
decision of the Board.
AFFIRMED
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