Apple Loses Preliminary Chinese Patent Infringement Ruling Over “Siri”

A Beijing court ruled this week that Chinese company Zhizhen Network Technology Co. can pursue a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple over speech recognition technology. “Unfortunately, we were not aware of Zhizhen’s patent before we introduced Siri, and we do not believe we are using this patent,” a Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman told Reuters. “While a separate court considers this question, we remain open to reasonable discussions with Zhizhen.” Zhizhen filed a patent infringement suit against Apple in 2012 claiming Siri, the American firm’s speech recognition technology found in iPhones and iPads, is infringing on its patent for “a type of chat robot system.” Apple then took Zhizhen and China’s State Intellectual Property Office to court to invalidate the claim. The tech giant said it intends to take the case to the Beijing Higher People’s Court.