Time to Fight Back Against Big Tech's IP Assault | Opinion

Paul R. Michel served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for 22 years, and as its chief judge from 2004 until his retirement in 2010.

In a highly anticipated decision, a judge of the United States International Trade Commission ruled in August that Google infringed five patents owned by speaker maker Sonos. The case charged Google with copying Sonos' patented technology in its Google Home smart speakers.

The decision could result in a ban on importing these Google devices.

That a tech giant would copy the intellectual property of a smaller, less powerful firm is hardly surprising—in fact, it happens all the time. What's unusual here is that Google didn't get away with it.

Over the last decade, major tech firms have been violating the IP rights of smaller companies with increasing frequency and relative impunity. This practice poses an urgent threat to the start-ups, small companies and individual inventors that fuel technological progress across our economy—as well as to the hundreds of thousands of jobs these businesses provide.