Apple wins voice recognition patent case in China

The Apple logo is pictured inside the newly opened Omotesando Apple store at a shopping district in Tokyo June 26, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING - Beijing Higher People's Court ruled in favor of Apple Inc on Tuesday over a Chinese government agency and a Shanghai technology company for a patent on voice recognition technology.

The court decision was made after Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court ruled last July against Apple, which sued the Patent Review Committee under the State Intellectual Property Office and Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology Co Ltd, accusing the latter of infringing the copyright on its voice recognition software, Siri.

The patent infringement dispute between Apple and Zhizhen goes back to June 2012, when Zhizhen, developer of speech recognition technology Xiao i Robot, filed a case against Apple for infringement of intellectual property rights, claiming that Siri technology violates its patent for "a type of instant messaging chat robot system."

Xiao i Robot, which began in 2003 as a chat bot for MSN, Yahoo Messenger and other chat programs, has expanded to iOS and Android, where it bears a striking similarity to Siri.

Siri, on the other hand, made its debut with the release of the iPhone 4S in 2011. It was first developed in 2007 by Siri Inc., a start-up company acquired by Apple in 2010.

No verdict was given after trials at a Shanghai court opened in 2013.

At the same time, Apple applied to the Patent Review Committee under the State Intellectual Property Office to invalidate the Xiao i Robot patent. When the committee supported Xiao i Robot, the US-based tech giant sued the committee and the Shanghai company.