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Being a big company does not always guarantee success in litigation. This time, Google will have to pay a $20 million fine to EcoFactor to close the Nest thermostats lawsuit. Google has said it will appeal the ruling.
EcoFactor claims that Nest thermostats infringed some of their patent rights. A court in Texas has convicted Google, and it has to pay $20 million in fines.
The case was ventilated in 2020, and EcoFactor initially claimed that Google’s Nest Thermostat infringed the rights of two of their patents. Finally, the court ruled that only one patent had been infringed. The controversial patent deals with the method that Google’s thermostats turn off HVAC systems to save energy.
The lawsuits against Google have increased significantly
The number of lawsuits against Big Tech has increased so much that it is no longer surprising to see them in courts. Every once in a while, we hear that Google faces a new lawsuit. The company is sometimes accused of violating competition laws and sometimes of violating privacy. Google’s policies in some areas have even led some prominent employees to leave the company.
Google spokesperson José Castañeda told Reuters that the verdict should not affect Nest customers, and they plan to appeal the ruling.
However, Google is not the only company that EcoFactor has filed a lawsuit against. EcoFactor has accused Amazon, Ecobee, and Vivint of violating its patent rights over smart-thermostat technology.
The company says that it’s happy to see that the court made Google to stay accountable. “The only place in the world that a small-but-innovative company like EcoFactor is on equal footing with Google is inside a courtroom, in front of a jury,” EcoFactor attorney Reza Mirzaie of Russ August & Kabat said.
This is the second time that Google has been accused of infringing on patents in recent months. Dates back to January, wireless speakers and home sound systems producer Sonos filed a patent lawsuit against Google and could win the case. In the end, Google had to change the method for handling volume controls on its smart devices.