Apple appears in a Chinese court over Siri patent infringement lawsuit

Technology giant Apple Inc yesterday denied at a Chinese court that its voice recognition software Siri infringes on the patent of a Shanghai-based Internet technology company.

A little known Chinese technology firm Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology Co Ltd had filed a patent lawsuit against Applein June 2012 for infringing its patented voice recognition software.

The Chinese patent suit was followed a month later by Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University, which filed a suit against Apple in Taiwan claiming that Siri has infringed on two patents held by one of its research teams, both related to speech recognition.

Zhizhen has alleged in its lawsuit filed at the Shanghai No. 1 intermediate people's court, that Apple's voice recognition software Siri, used on its iPhone 4S, infringes one of its patents.

Zhizhenk yesterday expanded the scope of the lawsuit to all Apple products that use Siri, including iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and iPad mini.

Yuan Yang, Zhizhen's lawyer, said that since the lawsuit was filed, Apple has launched more products with the Siri software.

Zhizhen claims to have developed voice technology called Xiao i Robot, which works on the Apple's IOS, Google's Android operating system and Windows Live Messenger.

Apple had launched its iPhone 4S with the Siri feature in China early last year, and in May 2012 launched the Siri services in Mandarin and Cantonese.

Apple acquired Siri through its April 2010 purchase of start-up company Siri Inc, which patented the Siri mobile virtual assistant in 2007. The California-based giant is reported to have paid between $150 -$200 million for the acquisition.

Siri was originally developed by SRI International. In 2007 SRI spun off Siri Inc, which launched a personal assistant app in February 2010.

Zhizhen claims that it has been developing the Xiao i Robot software since 2003 and applied for patent rights in 2004. It says that the patent took effect immediately after it was publicised in 2006, although it officially received the patent license from China's State Intellectual Property Office in 2009.

Xiao i Robot software, which has around 100 million users, is being widely used by government bodies as hotlines, and also as customer service functions by the telecommunications, banking, call centre and e-commerce industry in China.

It is used on smartphones, TVs, cars and web browsers and its clients include Microsoft, Yahoo, Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Meteorological Bureau and Lenovo.

Zhizhen Xiao i Robot can chat with users and answer inquiries related to news, map, stocks, weather, television programs and restaurants.

Zhizhen claims that Siri's international patent was granted in 2007, a year after Xiaoi's patent came into effect in China. Zhizhen has not yet claimed any damages, but wants Apple to stop infringing on its patent and pay for court costs.

Apple has refuted Zhizhen's claims and has asked China's state intellectual property office to invalidate Zhizhen's patent. It has requested the court to suspend hearing the case until the Chinese patent office passes a ruling.

The court rejected both pleas but gave both companies another month to find evidence to substantiate their claims.

The patent suit is a fresh assault on Apple in China and comes just a few months after it settled an iPad trademark patent battle with bankrupt Chinese computer display company Shenzhen Proview Technology.

Apple paid Shenzhen Proview Technology $60 million after it lost the patent suit in a Shenzhen court, as the Chinese company had threatened to block sales of the iPad in China.