Federal Court of Appeal Patent Update: Google LLC v. Sonos Inc.
On March 13, 2024, the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed Google’s appeal in Google LLC v. Sonos Inc., 2024 FCA 44 challenging a Federal Court decision that Sonos did not infringe Google’s patent, CA 2,545,150 “Method and Apparatus for Adaptive Echo and Noise Control”.
This appeal decision is the most recent pronouncement from the court on the standard of review applicable to the Federal Court’s construction of patent claim terms. In many instances, claim construction is reviewed on the standard of correctness. However, the FCA confirmed its existing law that this is not always the case. Indeed, “where the interpretation of a patent claim turns on the weight given to expert evidence, this Court will intervene only where there is a palpable and overriding error”.
Accordingly, it is the basis for the Federal Court’s claim construction that will determine the applicable standard of review.