“A Taiwan university has filed a patent infringement suit against Apple Inc in a U.S. court over the iPhone maker’s Siri speech recognition system, which lets users place calls or perform other tasks with voice commands, and is seeking undisclosed damages,” Clare Jim and Chyen Yee Lee report for Reuters.
“Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University said on Monday it had launched a suit alleging that Apple’s use of Siri in its iPhone and future versions of its iPad infringes two U.S. patents it was granted in 2007 and 2010 that relate to voice-to-text technology,” Jim and Lee report. “The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, on Friday, it said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Rocket Docket!
Jim and Lee report, “‘We filed that lawsuit in the Texas court because it processes faster and its rulings are usually in favor of patent owners and the compensations are usually higher,’ said Yama Chen, legal manager of National Cheng Kung, in the southern Taiwan city of Tainan… He declined to disclose the amount of compensation the university was seeking but said any calculation would be based on Apple’s U.S. sales of devices that use Siri. Chen said the university was also examining whether smartphone voice recognition systems used by Google Inc and Microsoft Corp have infringed its patents.”
Related articles:
Inside Siri: Apple’s game-changing technology – December 12, 2011
Why Apple had to release Siri in beta form – December 7, 2011
Apple’s Siri’s amazing voice-controlled artificial intelligence marks an inflection point in computing – November 24, 2011
Apple’s rather amazing Siri sells iPhone 4S – November 2, 2011
Bajarin: Apple’s iPhone 4S with Siri launch a pivotal moment in tech, but many missed its significance – October 17, 2011
Apple gave Siri AI personal assistant its edge – October 16, 2011
Apple’s iPhone luring people to ditch BlackBerries, Nokias, Android-based phones – October 15, 2011
Woz: Siri wil change everything (with video) – October 14, 2011
Apple iPhone 4S hands-on: Noticeably faster, amazing camera, Siri is mind-blowing – October 13, 2011
iPhone 4S’s intelligent assistant Siri shows off her sense of humor – October 13, 2011
Wired reviews Apple iPhone 4S: The ‘S’ stands for Siri, a life-changer, the reason people should buy this phone – October 12, 2011
WSJ’s Walt Mossberg reviews Apple iPhone 4S: Siri artificial-intelligence has to be tried to be believed – October 12, 2011
Stuff.tv hands-on with Apple iPhone 4S: Siri is amazing! (with video) – October 11, 2011
Yea, Right!
And Siri was developed over something like a decade by SAAB and the Swedish military; I’ll bet their patents trump some university.
Anyone think the patent approval system has a problem yet? Who gives a patent for “I tell a device what I want and it does it”. I going to get my idea patented for intergalactic travel before someone else does. Don’t have to know how to make it happen. I just have to think about it and it is mine!
Idiots!
You’ll have to think bigger…perhaps multi-universe travel. Inter-galactic stuff is so 90’s. 😉
Patent approval process is fine Jersey, most patents don’t hold up and need to be tested in court to be validated. Most people do not understand how the process works and thinks that only patents that will hold up in court with no prior art or that are valid and non obvious should be approved, that has never been the case.
Apple’s voice recognition techniques date back more than 20 years. (As of this August Apple has been shipping products that include user independent voice recognition for 20 years.)
Some day, Taiwan will break free of the terror that is China.
Apparently not culturally. Apple has been marked as a sucker, thanks to the Proview ‘iPad’ trademark scam. Now every 2-bit parasite and con-job scammer wants a piece.
Not good Apple. Told you so.
Where is the typical MDN Take that says “It’s wrong to steal IP” ???? You guys are slipping! 😉
i agree, it’s wrong for a Taiwanese company to steal in the 2000s a technology that Apple has been shipping for over 20 years since the early 90s, more than 12 years before these patents were filed.
The SIRI project predates them also.
I just got my patent for everything. You are all so screwed now.
“We filed that lawsuit in the Texas court because it processes faster and its rulings are usually in favor of patent owners and the compensations are usually higher,’ said Yama Chen, legal manager of National Cheng Kung, in the southern Taiwan city of Tainan…”
At least he’s admitting that they’re patent trolls, even if it’s not in so many words.
1
Took the words right out of my mouth.
Where can I sue some company?? I don’t know for what patent yet, but I want to sue anyways?
Makes you want to think up some crazy SciFi thing and get a patent on it, doesn’t it? Catch is you have to live long enough to see someone produce something likeit so you can scream you had it first and get rich.
iPad infringes two U.S. patents it was granted in 2007 and 2010 that relate to voice-to-text technology
Oops. Wrong lawsuit. NUANCE owns the voice-to-text technology, NOT Apple. Blatant DUH Factor.
Apple owns Siri, which does NOT do voice-to-text. Siri instead takes audio voice commands, sends them to NUANCE voice-to-text technology on an Internet server, which then sends Siri the recognized text. Siri then interprets the text, not voice, and provides a relevant text response, which is then read to the user via Text-To-Speech technology, pioneered by Apple back in the early 1980s, built into the very first Apple Macintosh.
IOW: This is just another ‘ME TOO!’ DumTard lawsuit.
‘Apple has money. Let’s get some. Oops, our lawyer is an DumTard and sued the wrong company. Darn. Thrown out of court.’
Just watch…
It seems to be one of those (0_o) days.