Chinese company Zhizhen Technology Co. has dragged Apple to court over what it claims is an infringement of one of its patents. The company claims that Apple, with the Siri voice assistant, has infringed its patent for voice recognition software. Both companies presented their cases in the Shanghai court. AFP reports that the full case is scheduled to be heard sometime in July 2013.
Zhizhen Technology Co. claims that it had patented the voice recognition software for personal assistants, similar to what Apple uses for Siri. Zhizhen holds a patent for voice recognition software for its Xiao i Robot, a voice assistant that was originally patented back in 2004. Siri Inc., as a company, was founded in 2007, before it was acquired by Apple in 2010. Zhizhen’s i Robot is claimed to be widely deployed in a lot of smartphones and other devices sold in China.
“The company will ask Apple to stop manufacturing and selling products using its patent rights, once Apple’s infringement is confirmed,” Si Weijiang, a lawyer representing Zhizhen, told AFP. “We don’t exclude the possibility of demanding compensation in the future”, he said.
“We surely have confidence, our lawyers also told us they have confidence, but of course we will have to see how the judge will rule”, said spokeswoman Mei Li.
The latest legal battle comes after Apple paid $60 million to Chinese computer maker Shenzhen Proview Technology last year, to settle a dispute over the “iPad” trademark. This is a particularly bad time for Apple to be fighting in a Chinese court, particularly after the company has come under fire from various sections of the consumers and the media for “alleged double standards in customer service and returns policies” which was labelled as Apple’s unparalleled arrogance.