Infringement Case Against Apple Over Siri Moves Forward
July 9, 2014
A Chinese court is allowing a Shanghai-based company to proceed with its case against Apple for infringing intellectual property rights. Zhizhen Internet Technology believes Apple's Siri violates the company’s voice system patents. Cupertino had sought dismissal of the case, according to Reuters.
Zhizhen first accused Apple for intellectual property rights infringement in 2012. Since then, the Cupertino, California-based company has attempted to have the case dismissed.
On Wednesday, Apple said it plans on appealing the case to the Beijing Higher People’s Court. In a statement, the company said "Unfortunately, we were not aware of Zhizhen's patent before we introduced Siri (speech recognition technology) and we do not believe we are using this patent.”
In the meantime, an Apple spokeswoman said “While a separate court considers this question, we remain open to reasonable discussions with Zhizhen."
The Chinese company declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
First introduced on the iPhone 4s in 2011, Siri is Apple's voice assistant software. It is now available on all current-generation iOS devices.
See also: Siri Offers Some Funny Quips Concerning iOS 8, WWDC, Google Search Gets Smarter On iOS, Lets Users Quickly Fix Misinterpretations, and Apple Said To Have Formed Own Speech Recognition Team To Enhance Siri.