A Shanghai-based voice assistant developer at Zhizhen Network Technology claims that Apple’s Siri infringes on one of the company’s patents for a “type of instant messaging chat bot system,” reports “M.I.C. Gadget” (http://macte.ch/rejwn). Siri is Apple’s speech recognition “personal assistant” feature the debuted with the iPhone 4.
The Zhizhen lawsuit isn’t attacking the Siri trademark itself but the introduction that Apple used on their China’s official website to explain what Siri is, which says “it (siri) can understand what you say and what you’re asking for, and it can find the answer that you are looking for on the web”. However, “we cannot find the Siri’s introduction on Apple’s China site anymore, seems like it had been pulled down already to avoid infringement,” notes “M.I.C. Gadget.”
This isn’t the first China-based Sir lawsuit. On July 30, it was reported by the “IDG News Service” that Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University filed a lawsuit in a U.S. district court on Friday, alleging that Apple’s Siri infringes on two of the school’s U.S. patents dealing with speech recognition technology.
The university is demanding Apple pay a still undetermined amount in damages, and that the court order an injunction on Apple’s use of Siri as a feature on its iPhones and iPads. For more info go to http://macte.ch/kx0uC ,