News

Undisclosed terms include multi-year licensing deal associated with all BluOS enabled solutions worldwide

Santa Barbara, Calif. – July 30, 2020 – Sonos (Nasdaq: SONO) and Lenbrook Industries today announced they have reached a confidential settlement in Sonos’ patent infringement lawsuit against Lenbrook Industries, and Lenbrook America, which sell the Bluesound high-resolution multizone audio systems. As part of this settlement, Lenbrook Industries will pay royalties for a license to Sonos’ patents for all BluOS enabled devices.

“Sonos is a company founded on innovation – it is a part of our DNA. Nearly twenty years ago, we invented multi-room wireless streaming, and since then we have developed many of the innovations that enable today’s listening experiences and will also enable tomorrow’s,” said Eddie Lazarus, Chief Legal Officer. “We welcome and encourage competition, and want to make sure that all companies entering this space recognize the strength of our IP and provide appropriate compensation. Today’s settlement reflects those principles.”

“Lenbrook and the brands we own have been in the premium consumer audio space for almost 50 years,” said Greg Stidsen, Lenbrook’s Chief Technology Officer. “Our record of innovation and critical acclaim across all our brands speaks for itself. We have partnered with more than 20 innovative technology companies in our quest to offer the market the highest performance and most advanced audio solutions possible. We are pleased that we have been able to reach an agreement with Sonos to end this patent dispute.”

About Sonos

Sonos (Nasdaq: SONO) is one of the world’s leading sound experience brands. As the inventor of multi-room wireless home audio, Sonos innovation helps the world listen better by giving people access to the content they love and allowing them to control it however and wherever they choose. Known for delivering an unparalleled sound experience, thoughtful design aesthetic, simplicity of use, and an open platform, Sonos makes the breadth of audio content available to anyone. Sonos is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California. Learn more at www.sonos.com.

About Lenbrook

Lenbrook is the owner and manufacturer of award-winning brands for premium home audio and residential install applications. Its full and innovative suite of products from NAD Electronics, PSB Speakers, Bluesound wireless multi-room players, and Bluesound Professional commercial audio, are distributed in over 80 countries, while its BluOS hi-res distributed audio platform continues to be adopted by some of the world’s leading premium audio brands.

For Immediate Release

PICKERING, Ontario, Canada, June 26, 2019 – Lenbrook America Corp. and Lenbrook Industries Limited (“Lenbrook”), the maker of the award-winning high-fidelity and high resolution audio based Bluesound wireless multi-room audio players, announced its intent to defend vigorously the claims of patent infringement made by computer audio company Sonos, a public company. The patent infringement complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on June 20, 2019, and names both Lenbrook entities as defendants.

Lenbrook respects the valid intellectual property rights of others, and in fact has entered into many patent licenses over its 40-year history. The Bluesound brand and technology platform was developed and funded by Lenbrook, a private Canada-based company. This proprietary development has relied on 40 years of internal or contracted Lenbrook know-how in the areas of amplification, acoustics, and connected audio allowing Lenbrook to develop products delivering high resolution audio files and streaming music throughout residences and commercial establishments.

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 recognized by the industry as the first legacy audio company to deliver such a complete and differentiated solution to the audiophile marketplace.

Lenbrook is aware of the prior patent infringement dispute between Sonos and its competitor Denon, which ended with a negotiated settlement.

Furthermore, Lenbrook is also aware that in November 2018, Sonos sent letters to multiple audio companies, including Lenbrook, providing notice that Sonos believes that they all infringe certain Sonos patents. In accordance with Lenbrook’s standard business practice, while beginning its own investigation of Sonos’ patent concerns, Lenbrook, as a sign of goodwill and respect, did inquire whether Sonos had developed, a standard licensing program and terms. Lenbrook disagrees with the recent statement from a Sonos “spokesperson” characterizing the substance of the parties’ licensing discussions.

As a final point of clarification, Lenbrook agrees that it was indeed the distributor for Sonos in Canada briefly for 10 months from approximately July 2007 to May 2008. In fact, Lenbrook has been a Canadian distributor (its original platform business) for over 40 years representing scores of respected “non-Lenbrook owned” brands across the audio, custom installation, professional communications and wireless communication industries. Lenbrook continues to be a trusted distribution partner to the brands it represents in Canada. 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 specialized 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.

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