“Apple appeared in a Shanghai court on Wednesday, accused by a Chinese firm of copying software used for the ‘Siri’ personal assistant on its hugely popular iPhones,” Amanda Wang reports for Agence France-Presse.
“Shanghai’s Zhizhen Network Technology Co. claims Apple infringed its patent for voice recognition software, and the two companies were summoned to present evidence at a pre-trial hearing, representatives of the Chinese firm said,” Wang reports. “The legal challenge comes after Apple last year paid $60 million to Chinese computer maker Shenzhen Proview Technology to settle a long-running dispute over the ‘iPad’ trademark, whose ownership was claimed by both companies.”
Wang reports, “Zhizhen says it patented its ‘Xiao i Robot’ software in 2004, while Apple’s Siri, which made its debut with the release of the iPhone 4S in 2011, was first developed in 2007… ‘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.”
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