“Apple has agreed to pay $24.9 million to settle a years-long lawsuit alleging that its Siri voice technology violated a patent licensed to a Dallas company by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York,” Chelsea Diana reports for The Albany Business Review.
“The lawsuit alleges Siri was developed at Rensselaer before Apple introduced it in 2011 with the iPhone 4S,” Diana reports. “The Dallas company, Dynamic Advances, was the exclusive licensee of Rensselaer’s patent.”
“Under the terms of the agreement, Dynamic Advances’ parent company Marathon Patent Group will receive $5 million from Apple immediately after dropping its case. The remaining $19.9 million will come after some conditions are met,” Diana reports. “In exchange, Apple will receive a patent license and a promise that it won’t be sued again for three years.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How’ll Apple ever come up wi… PAID.
Apple strategy moving forward…
1) steal it first
2) make gobs and gobs of money
3) pay off injured parties 1% of all proceeds
Damn… That’s efficient! GoApple!
NO. Apple bought Siri, which has previously been an app available for iOS devices. I had a copy.
Of interest:
Siri’s total raised capital, before Apple bought them, was $24 million. Rumors about the purchase estimate that Apple paid ~$200 million for Siri. Apple thereafter bought companies whose technology contributes to Siri. They include: Novauris and VocalIQ.
For those interested in more about where Siri came from:
Who Invented Siri?
… According to an Xconomy article by Wade Roush, “the algorithms that make the app [Siri} work are the product of years of defense-sponsored research at Menlo Park, CA-based SRI International and other institutions that cost taxpayers at least $150 million.
Siri is a technology that has a foundation in decades of research conducted and supported by DARPA and SRI International’s Artificial Intelligence Center through two programs: DARPA’s Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL), and SRI’s Cognitive Agent that Learns and Organizes (CALO). SRI funded the initial Siri research conducted by Dag Kittlaus and his team of engineers. . . .
In 2008, SRI founded Siri Incorporated to commercialize the results of the CALO project, Silicon Valley venture capital firms Menlo Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures poured another $24 million into the technology. . . .
In 2008, Siri Incorporated was founded with Norwegian Dag Kittlaus as CEO, Adam Cheyer as VP of Engineering, Tom Gruber as CTO/VP of Design, with the financial support coordinated by Norman Winarsky from SRI International’s venture group. After the sale of his company to Apple, Dag Kittlaus and a team of Siri engineers stayed on for 18 additional months with Apple to develop Siri technology for the iPhone. . . .
∑ = Apple bought the tech. Sadly, it came with the results of this lawsuit, essentially adding another $25 million to the purchase price for the next three years. Thereafter, we’ll see.
OR… Blame DARPA!
So I am confused, where does the group behind this lawsuit come into all that explanation of origin, especially as they claim they created it. I know things are complex in these matters but this is like smoke and mirrors on steroids.
“In exchange, Apple will receive a patent license and a promise that it won’t be sued again for three years.”
Three years … what the hell?
My guess:
= Court Fees + Damages + Three year license.
This settlement does not sit well with me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siri
Siri is a spin-out from the SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center, and is an offshoot of the DARPA-funded CALO project.[31][32] Siri was co-founded by SRI’s Dag Kittlaus (CEO) and Adam Cheyer (VP Engineering) and by Tom Gruber (CTO).[12]
Siri’s primary technical areas focus on a Conversational Interface, Personal Context Awareness, and Service Delegation.[33]
Siri’s speech recognition engine is provided by Nuance Communications, a speech technology company, although this was not officially acknowledged by either Apple or Nuance until AllThingsD Conference (2013).[34]
I really miss the connection with Rensselaer and Dynamic Advances.
It seems this was a donation to education, at best. But a scam all the same.
I am willing to admit, if the connection could be shown, that SRI or CALO used or borrowed Rensselaer’s research, because you know, it’s DARPA, and the ends justify the means.
Good show for Apple, as I see them as a victim.
Technically, the speech recognition in Siri had nothing to do with this case and is solely owned by Nuance. Siri itself originally did not include its own speech recognition. As I noted above, Apple did buy other companies to enlarge Siri’s speech recognition abilities, including Novauris and VocalIQ.
As Amazon has Alexa, Microsoft has Cortana, and Google has ummm something, I wonder if Rensselaer is making the rounds. If not, why just go after Apple.
Im glad I am not the only one and Derek’s additional information doesn’t really bring us any closer to what is going on here. Would be nice to know even a shift of where the supposed conflict is, in regard to these other originators of the technology and why it has taken so long for it to become known.
Just more trolls wanting money, I think.