US technology giant Apple Inc has lost a lawsuit against a Chinese state regulator over patent rights to voice recognition software such as the iPhone’s Siri, a Beijing court said.
The legal battle began in 2012 when Shanghai-based Zhizhen Network Technology Co (智臻網路) pursued Apple for allegedly infringing its Chinese patent with Siri, its “intelligent personal assistant.”
Apple asked China’s patent review board, which operates under the control of the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office, to declare Zhizhen’s original patent ineffective, but the request was rejected.
Late last year, Apple appealed to Beijing’s Number One Intermediate People’s Court to overturn that decision.
“The court did not support the cause of action stated by Apple,” the court said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to the case in which Apple “brought a lawsuit” against the government agency.
“The patent for the invention of the ‘type of chatbot system’ involved remains effective,” the court said, referring to Zhizhen’s patent.
Apple had decided to appeal to the Beijing Higher People’s Court, it added.
Apple’s Siri, which responds to user commands through voice recognition software, made its formal debut with the release of the iPhone 4S in 2011, while Zhizhen claims its earlier Xiao i Robot product works in a similar way.
It is not the first time that Apple has been embroiled in intellectual property rights controversy in China, where its products are popular.
Apple in 2012 paid US$60 million to settle a separate legal dispute with a Chinese firm over the iPad trademark.
TESLA
Meanwhile, US electric automaker Tesla Motors Inc on Wednesday denounced a Chinese businessman’s lawsuit seeking millions of US dollars for alleged trademark infringement as an attempt to “steal” its property.
Zhan Baosheng (占寶生), said to be the founder of a cosmetics Web site in the southern city of Guangzhou, registered “Tesla” as a trademark in China in 2009, the China Business News said.
He also sought to trademark a T-shaped logo and the phrase “Tesla Motors,” it said, although those applications were still pending following objections.
Zhan filed a lawsuit against Tesla in a Beijing court last week, the paper reported, demanding that it close its showrooms, service centers and charging facilities in China, terminate all sales and marketing activities in the country and pay 23.9 million yuan (US$3.9 million) in compensation.
An official with Beijing’s Third Intermediate People’s Court, who declined to be named, confirmed to reporters that it had received an intellectual property infringement action against the automaker.
Tesla slammed the lawsuit.
“There can be no legitimate dispute that Tesla created and used these trademarks long before Mr Zhan attempted to steal them from us in China,” Tesla said in a statement. “Since Mr Zhan does not rightfully own the trademark at issue, it follows that his lawsuit is without any conceivable merit.”
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