Chinese AI firm slaps Apple with $1.4bn patent lawsuit
Chinese artificial intelligence firm Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology has filed a $1.4bn lawsuit against Apple, claiming the iPhone giant has infringed on a patent for its voice assistant technology.
Shanghai Zhizhen, also known as Xiao-i, is calling for 10bn yuan ($1.4bn) in damages and demands that Apple cease “manufacturing, using, promising to sell, selling, and importing” products that infringe on the patent.
The Chinese firm alleged Apple has violated a 2009 patent that it owns for a virtual assistant whose technical architecture is similar to Siri, Apple’s voice assistant.
The lawsuit marks the continuation of a row between the pair that has been ongoing for nearly a decade.
Shanghai Zhizhen first sued Apple for patent infringement in 2012 regarding its voice recognition technology.
China’s Supreme People’s court ruled in June that Shanghai Zhizhen owns the patent for the virtual assistant, which has been in development since 2003.
Apple acquired Siri in 2010 from a company with the same name that used voice-recognition technology from Nuance Communications.
China is Apple’s second largest market outside of the US in terms of sales, opening a new flagship store in Beijing last month. It is also home to a number of its biggest suppliers.
The tech giant reported revenue gains in every product category and geography in its most recent quarter last week, surprising Wall Street.
It beat expectations on iPhone sales by $4bn, bringing in $26.42bn in revenue from the smartphone in the three months to the end of June.
Apple did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.