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Chinese Court Rules Against Apple in Siri-Related Patent Dispute

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,524
30,826



Apple today faced a setback in it efforts to overturn a speech recognition patent held by Shanghai-based Zhizhen Internet Technology. According to Reuters, the Beijing First Intermediate Court ruled in favor of Zhizhen, upholding the validity of the patent and paving the way for Zhizhen's existing infringement case against Apple to continue.

siri_hero.jpg
Apple said in a statement that it would appeal this decision with the Beijing Higher People's Court.
"Apple believes deeply in protecting innovation, and we take intellectual property rights very seriously," said a spokesman.

"Apple created Siri to provide customers with their own personal assistant by using their voice.

"Unfortunately, we were not aware of Zhizhen's patent before we introduced Siri, and we do not believe we are using this patent.

"While a separate court considers this question, we remain open to reasonable discussions with Zhizhen."
Click to expand...
This patent is an integral part of an intellectual property infringement lawsuit first filed by Zhizhen against Apple in 2012. Zhizhen claims that Apple's Siri voice assistant infringes upon patents that cover its own Xiaoi Robot voice assistant system for messaging clients.

The Xiaoi bot originated as a chat bot for MSN and similar networks, but has moved on to a number of platforms, including Android and iOS [App Store]. It has evolved to bear a striking similarity to Siri.

Zhizhen first introduced the Xiaoi Robot in 2003, filed for the related voice recognition patent in 2004, and was awarded rights to the technology in 2006.

Article Link: Chinese Court Rules Against Apple in Siri-Related Patent Dispute
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/07/09/apple-siri-china-patent-dispute/
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beltzak

macrumors member
Aug 18, 2006
41
17
Same could be apply to the USA courts or the Obama administration that choose to over rule what the courts said.

By the way, seems that the patent was granted in 2006 so for now seems that the Chinase company has all the reasons to go against Apple. Or is it ok when Apple steals but not ok when someone steals from Apple?
 
S

smader12

macrumors newbie
Jun 15, 2012
7
0
Interesting they say Apple created Siri, Apple bought Siri, it did not create it.
 
FrancoisC

FrancoisC

macrumors 6502a
Jan 27, 2009
546
281
Montreal, Qc
All the time and money lost because of stupid patents and lawsuits... I honestly don't care who created what first. So what if samsung copy apple, or if apple copy someone else!

In the end, the company that make the better use of X and Y options will be the one customers chose to buy stuff from.
 
B

Brian Y

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2012
3,776
1,064
Chinese company vs American company in a Chinese court. There is only one possible outcome.
 
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T

tongxinshe

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2008
1,064
651
Brian Y said:
Chinese company vs American company in a Chinese court. There is only one possible outcome.
Click to expand...

There had been a lot more previous examples in which US companies were ruled in favor in China, go do real investigation before opening wide your mouth!

Instead, on the other hand, quite a lot of small countries’ companies were not treated fairly in the US court, mostly just because they are not familiar with the extremely tricky legal systems in the US, which is way beyond the original purpose of establishing legal systems, especially for international fairs.
 
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B

bearcatrp

macrumors 68000
Sep 24, 2008
1,733
69
Boon Docks USA
I like how apple said they were not aware of the patent. Must be a new way of ripping off technology from another company. Amazing how apple downplays this but when someone does it to them, they go nuts. IF apple did do this, PAY up apple like everyone else does!
 
M

Milquetoast

macrumors newbie
Apr 14, 2008
28
7
Maryland
Chinese respect for (or lack thereof) IP rights

Search for "huawei theft" in your favorite search engine... it's not exactly news to most anymore.

e.g.,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei#Intellectual_property_rights

http://blogs.cisco.com/news/huawei-and-ciscos-source-code-correcting-the-record/

http://www.networkcomputing.com/networking/huawei-quits-us-market/d/d-id/1234177?

http://etherealmind.com/the-huawei-security-problem-isnt-the-hardware-its-engineers-fixing-the-bugs/

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1043337053732688864
 
ShinySteelRobot

ShinySteelRobot

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2002
184
71
Upper Left Corner, USA
There is a long history of Chinese companies violating foreign-held trademarks within China. Apple, Ferarri, Burberry, and many other companies have had to pay millions of dollars to Chinese companies because someone else copied their trademarked products in China before the "real" company was able to trademark them in China.

For example, Tesla Motors of America is in hot water right now because somebody in China sniped the "Tesla" trademark in the Chinese Trademark Office before the American company realized it should register in China.

We see this type of thing all the time in the Western news media. This isn't racist, it's just foreigners frustrated at how business and law is conducted in China. Western companies are routinely extorted/trolled by Chinese companies with the support of the Chinese courts.

Further reading:

http://www.ibtimes.com/tesla-motors...ional-companies-can-learn-tesla-about-1401973
 
B

Brian Y

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2012
3,776
1,064
tongxinshe said:
There had been a lot more previous examples in which US companies were ruled in favor in China, go do real investigation before opening wide your mouth!

Instead, on the other hand, quite a lot of small countries’ companies were not treated fairly in the US court, mostly just because they are not familiar with the extremely tricky legal systems in the US, which is way beyond the original purpose of establishing legal systems, especially for international fairs.
Click to expand...

Quit the attacks. Discussing it sensibly would be better.

Do you have any links to copyright or patent disputes won by a us company in a Chinese court vs a Chinese company?

For every one you find, I could link you to hundreds gone the other way (eg land rover and bmws attempts to stop Chinese companies sellingn clones of their cars, etc).
 
Eweie

Eweie

macrumors regular
Oct 5, 2013
152
84
Lol the Chinese dont give a crap about patents especially coming from an american company for sure. of course they ruled against apple preferring their comrades. :rolleyes:
these types of news shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.
 
iZac

iZac

macrumors 68030
Apr 28, 2003
2,596
2,781
UK
Chinese courts will always come down on the side of local business, if only to boulster the Chinese economy. If you want to trade here, you must follow their rules, even if it's corrupt.

Totally unrelated but people can't fathom why Transformers 4 has broken Chinese box office records, despite the fact that it's apparently a turd. That's because it has a lot of Chinese investment and they basically wiped clear the film schedule of anything else. I went to a Cinema last weekend that was ONLY showing Transformers and some random local rom-com. It's a random piece of anecdotal evidence, but what I'm eluding to, is with enough political clout, Chinese companies can and will do anything to secure their financial success.

As I've come to realise, you can't change China, China changes you.
 
PocketSand11

PocketSand11

macrumors 6502a
Jun 12, 2014
688
1
~/
iZac said:
Totally unrelated but people can't fathom why Transformers 4 has broken Chinese box office records, despite the fact that it's apparently a turd. That's because it has a lot of Chinese investment and they basically wiped clear the film schedule of anything else. I went to a Cinema last weekend that was ONLY showing Transformers and some random local rom-com. It's a random piece of anecdotal evidence, but what I'm eluding to, is with enough political clout, Chinese companies can and will do anything to secure their financial success.

As I've come to realise, you can't change China, China changes you.
Click to expand...

I've never heard anecdotes from someone who lives in China. Thanks for sharing. And, uh, that's a bit scary :S
Here in the U.S., we have that thing about it being illegal to unlock phones to use on any carrier, which has drawn some suspicion. It was posted on MacRumors, so you probably saw it.

----------

It has evolved to bear a striking similarity to Siri.
Click to expand...
It's hard to get more ironic than this.
 
R

redhawk87

macrumors regular
Jul 11, 2009
181
23
Raleigh, NC
Everyone on here is griping about Chinese laws and how they are unfair to foreign companies. Dont get me wrong, this is a very true statement. I do feel the Chinese court system is allowing blatant stealing of foreign technology. But, I feel there is another way to look at it. Think about South Korea and Japan. 50 years ago, the same exact thing could be said about Japan. Japan at that time was today's China. All Japanese companies just copied western ideas. Same goes for South Korea. It may just be mere coincidence and my lack of knowledge of oriental languages, but 'Hyundai' sounds an awful lot like 'Honda' to me.

What I am trying to say, is that this phase China is going through is just one of those stages a country has to go through as they develop. Once China makes the leap from imitate to innovate, I am hoping all these stupid court rulings will go away, but until then we just have to be patient and wait. As Non-Chinese citizens, there is not much we can do.
 
kdarling

kdarling

macrumors P6
Jun 9, 2007
17,373
5,924
First university coding class = 47 years ago
redhawk87 said:
50 years ago, the same exact thing could be said about Japan. Japan at that time was today's China. All Japanese companies just copied western ideas. Same goes for South Korea.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I've pointed out the same thing. Many countries, especially after having to reconstruct after WW-II, emulated the US at first.

(Decades later, the situation reversed, and the US began copying companies from Japan and Germany.)

It may just be mere coincidence and my lack of knowledge of oriental languages, but 'Hyundai' sounds an awful lot like 'Honda' to me.
Click to expand...

The Hyundai corporate name dates from 1947, long before Honda's products got well known.

What I am trying to say, is that this phase China is going through is just one of those stages a country has to go through as they develop.
Click to expand...

Yep, or at least, it's one common path.
 
ShinySteelRobot

ShinySteelRobot

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2002
184
71
Upper Left Corner, USA
redhawk87 said:
50 years ago, the same exact thing could be said about Japan. Japan at that time was today's China. All Japanese companies just copied western ideas.
Click to expand...

Copying ideas is one thing. Japan copied a lot of western ideas. Japan even improved on those ideas, or manufactured them to a higher standard.

But blatant copying of a company's name and logo trademarks (as has happened to Tesla in China) is something else entirely. I don't see how China is improving on these.

Real Tesla trademarked logo:
Tesla-Motors-logo-1.jpg


Chinese trademarked logo by Chinese company:

tesla-trademark-filings-china-tm-troll.png


I'm sure the similarity is purely coincidental. ;)
 
haruhiko

haruhiko

macrumors 604
Sep 29, 2009
6,529
5,875
tongxinshe said:
There had been a lot more previous examples in which US companies were ruled in favor in China, go do real investigation before opening wide your mouth!

Instead, on the other hand, quite a lot of small countries’ companies were not treated fairly in the US court, mostly just because they are not familiar with the extremely tricky legal systems in the US, which is way beyond the original purpose of establishing legal systems, especially for international fairs.
Click to expand...

But you're defending China in a Mac forum based in the United States, so you won't win too....
 
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