Apple Sued By Chinese Firm For Jacking Siri!!

[The Technician]

Apparently, a Chinese firm created and patented software called Xiao Bot for Android that looks and functions an awful lot like Siri. They might have a case based on the Youtube vid below.



http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/07/05/apple_sued_for_allegedly_infringing_chinese_siri_like_patent.html

Apple sued for allegedly infringing Chinese Siri-like patent

By Mikey Campbell

Published: 05:51 PM EST (02:51 PM PST)
A Chinese software firm hit Apple with a patent infringement suit for allegedly violating its 2006 voice-recognizing assistant patent when the Cupertino-based company integrated Siri technology into the iPhone 4S.

The new dispute adds to the growing number of Chinese court claims filed against Apple and follows a separate suit that alleges the Mac maker violated a trademark for the Snow Leopard moniker as well as the recent $60 million settlement paid out to defunct monitor maker Proview.

According to a report from M.I.C. Gadget, the new lawsuit was first filed on June 26 by Shanghai-based Zhizhen Network Technology and claims Apple's Siri voice assistant infringes on the “ZL200410053749.9″ patent for “a type of instant messaging chat bot system” dubbed Xiaoi Bot. The internet-driven software has reportedly been implemented in China by Microsoft's MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and Shanghai Expo’s Dr Haibao among others.

While the Xiaoi Bot patent was originally filed for in 2004 with a subsequent approval in 2006, Zhi Zhen only recently revealed the Siri-like technology in February and is apparently an Android-only asset as it was launched in Lenovo's Android 4.0 Smart TV.

In comparison, Apple released Siri to the Chinese market in January and highlighted the system's Chinese language support at WWDC last month.

 

[dasmybikepunk]

Ever since Apple settled Proview’s frivolous trademark suit over the iPad name for a whopping $60 million, the vultures have been coming out of the woodwork. First, Jiangsu Xuebao, a Chinese toothpaste and shoe polish company, sued Apple over its supposedly-infringing “Snow Leopard” trademark, and now Zhizhen Network Technology is taking Apple to court over Siri.

According to a report by M.I.C Gadget,

Apple’s Siri infringes on one of Zhizhen’s patents so-called ‘ZL200410053749.9′, which is a patent for ‘a type of instant messaging chat bot system’ called Xiaoi Bot.
However, M.I.C. Gadget goes on to explain that any perceived patent violation may not have been the actual impetus for the case. Instead, Zhizhen apparently took umbrage at the commercial explanation — yes, the explanation — of Siri’s basic functionality. Specifically in question was

the introduction that Apple used on their China’s official website to explain what Siri is, which says “it (siri) can understand what you say and what you’re asking for, and it can find the answer that you are looking for on the web”.
While that definition is no longer on the website in question, the suit is going forward and is currently in pretrial negotiations.

Sheesh.

Source: M.I.C. Gadget
Via: TUAW