Apple Facing $1.4 Billion Lawsuit
Apple has been hit with a $1.4 billion lawsuit by a Chinese artificial intelligence company that alleges Apple violated a patent it owns for a virtual assistant similar to Siri, according to a paywalled Wall Street Journal report.
Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology Co. said in a statement on Monday it was suing Apple for an estimated billion yuan $. billion in damages in a Shanghai court, alleging the iPhone and iPad maker s products violated a patent the Chinese company owns for a virtual assistant whose technical architecture is similar to Siri. Siri, a voice-activated function in Apple s smartphones and laptops, allows users to dictate text messages or set alarms on their devices.
As part of the lawsuit, Shanghai Zhizhen, also known as Xiao-i, wants Apple to cease manufacturing, using, promising to sell, selling, and importing all products that it says infringe on the patent, which was ruled as valid by China s Supreme Court in late June.
The patent ruling is the culmination of several court trials between Zhi Zhen and Apple that s been ongoing for nearly a decade. MacRumors first reported on the Chinese AI firm s claim that Siri infringes on its patent rights in March . The claim is specifically in relation to Xiao-i, a chat robot system the Zhi Zhen has been developing since .
The Xiao-i bot began life as a chat bot for MSN and similar networks, but it has since migrated to a number of platforms including Android and iOS, and evolved to look quite similar to Siri. Zhi Zhen applied for the virtual assistant patent in and it was granted in .
Siri was acquired by Apple in April under the direction of Steve Jobs, but Apple s first notion of a digital personal assistant was originally a concept video in , called the Knowledge Navigator.
