Setback for Apple as it loses patent suit
Print Edition
IN a setback to Apple Inc, the US multinational giant yesterday lost a patent suit against the State Intellectual Property Office in Beijing, which could force the firm to remove Siri, a voice-recognition personal assistant application, from its products or stop selling products with Siri on Chinese mainland.
In the ruling, the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court turned down Apple’s request to revoke a review decision of the IPR office which confirmed that the patents of Xiao i Robot, a Siri-like product, are valid.
Apple said yesterday it would file an appeal.
It is also involved in an ongoing patent suit against Xiao i Robot’s developer, Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology Company. Zhizhen sued Apple in May in Shanghai last year, alleging that Apple’s Siri infringed the patents of Xiao i Robot in man-machine interaction technologies.
Apple had asked the office to invalidate the patents of Xiao i Robot in an attempt to avoid the suit.
After its request was rejected last September, Apple dragged the office to the Beijing intermediate court, which heard the case in February.
Insiders said the ruling would give Zhizhen the edge in its battle with Apple. Zhizhen told Shanghai Daily yesterday that it would continue with its case in Shanghai.
The dispute between Apple and Zhizhen has run since 2012 after Siri was introduced on the Chinese mainland on iPhone 4S.
Siri has proved to be very popular among Apple fans as it can recognize speeches and answer queries, including calling a contact, checking the weather and finding location on the map.
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