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No, but the technology was. Siri (the company) was a spin-off from SRI International.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRI_International

http://readwrite.com/2008/10/13/semantic_stealth_startup_siric

The line that is important is this "Siri is a spin-out from the SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center, and is an offshoot of the DARPA-funded CALO project." In other words Siri was developed originally by the US government. So, with my conspiracy theory hat firmly in place, I say this is a proxy war between China and US government. :/
 
The interface looks like a copy of Siri. But the voice recognition, voicing, and the ability to interact with users seems superior to Siri leading me to think they have been developing it long before Siri. If they are suing based on the backend technology, Apple is in trouble.

That sounds pretty interesting, especially the "interact" feature, do you have any further demonstrations, as the only video I have seen is the one in the article, which seems identical to Siri?
 
This is amazing! The Chinese tend to be the most blatant copyright breakers themselves and yet they have the guts to sue others. I wish all the automotive companies sued them for copying designs. That would've been an interesting day.

BMW sued a Chinese car manufacture who made a BMW X5 rip off and lost.

Can you actually tell the difference between the two lol?

Chinese X5 (Left)

BMW X5 (Right)
 

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The look and behavior in that video is so exactly like Siri, there are really only two possibilities:

1) Apple stole it outright from Zhi Zhen.

2) Zhi Zhen patented the basic concept in 2004, but stole the current look and feel from Apple once Siri shipped.


Considering Apple bought the Siri company and its app, which in turn had developed the tech for DARPA, #1 seems rather unlikely. #2 is also unlikely. I doubt the chat bot Zhi Zhen had in 2004 had any relation to the Siri knockoff they have now.

But as far as I can tell, evidence plays a very small part in these trials. More likely, this is how it will go:

Judge: "Comrade Chen, what do you think of this case?"
Govt. official Chen: "We don't like Apple very much right now."
Judge: "Guilty!!"

But that's what companies get for putting their manufacturing in a country with an undemocratic regime with little respect for rule of law, and even less respect for human rights.
 
Let's not lose sight of the fact that Apple actually bought Siri. Remember, there was an app on the App store named Siri, and Apple bought the company.

Exactly. So where was this Chinese company then? Why didn't thy sue Siri (the company ) back then. Answer, cos they've just made it up.

Modern Chinese economic foundations are built almost entirely on copyright theft. I remember a report back in the late 80s / early 90s when cheap cd duplication machines became widely available, where you didn't need a super clean factory , you buy a mass duplicator the size of a large photocopier. China had enough of these to manufacture 100s of millions of CDs per year yet the domestic market was about 20 million sales. Then they turned to software theft and screwed M$ with counterfeit office, more recently its DVD/bd piracy.
 
The look and behavior in that video is so exactly like Siri, there are really only two possibilities:

1) Apple stole it outright from Zhi Zhen.

2) Zhi Zhen patented the basic concept in 2004, but stole the current look and feel from Apple once Siri shipped.

The discovery process should be interesting!

(P.S., my money is on #2 above)

Siri was a stand alone app until Apple bought them
 
The look and behavior in that video is so exactly like Siri, there are really only two possibilities:

1) Apple stole it outright from Zhi Zhen.

2) Zhi Zhen patented the basic concept in 2004, but stole the current look and feel from Apple once Siri shipped.

The discovery process should be interesting!

(P.S., my money is on #2 above)
Definitely #2. The android version looks closer to Siri most likely because they changed it after seeing Siri (And android process updates the moment you submit), yet the iOS update has to go through the review process (And Apple wouldn't approve a siri clone.)
 
Exactly but this company actually copied the look of Siri. It's all fine and dandy that they thought of this and patented it before Apple but then they actually copied Apple's Siri UI. It's blame on both parts.

That is a trade dress or copyright argument. The current lawsuit involves patents.
 
Wait, wait, wait. So if these guys are saying they first started the "siri" idea, what about ELIZA from 1966? That, I think, is earlier than 2003.

Every idea began in China, even if it was invented elsewhere before China invented it.
 
China feels it needs to catch up quickly. For the longest time in its history it wasn't that great. SO its essentially taking the fast track by ripping off everything it can.

Why don't they feel guilty? Well its their perspective of the world, from their point of view China has always been China. Literally like from the beginning of recorded history. So quite frankly they see the rest of the world as secondary to the motherland. Our laws and copyright are just silly things we've come up with in China's world.

A couple years ago BMW and other car manufacturers sued various chinese car manufacturers over blatant rip offs.. annnd they lost. Suing Chinese companies in Chinese Courts is an exercise in futility.

Now Apple may have a fighting chance because of their association with Foxconn and I wouldn't put it past Apple to grease a few palms to make this go away, but still they would be playing by China's rules. That's just how China works. Pay us or Pay us; that's just how they roll.

Poor Greedy American Business caught in China's Economic Web.
 
This is laughable for sure. China has full fledged illegal Apple stores all over the place and laptops with a Peach symbol on the back screens like Apple Macbooks.

This is unreal.

China steals everything from everyone. I hope Apple destroys them in court.
 
BMW sued a Chinese car manufacture who made a BMW X5 rip off and lost.

Can you actually tell the difference between the two lol?

Chinese X5 (Left)

BMW X5 (Right)

all modern cars look similar, not just those

----------

This is laughable for sure. China has full fledged illegal Apple stores all over the place and laptops with a Peach symbol on the back screens like Apple Macbooks.

This is unreal.

China steals everything from everyone. I hope Apple destroys them in court.

it's a Chinese company against Apple, not China against Apple
 
What a coincidence that the siri button and this button are nearly identical. What are the odds of that happening?
 
Some strange points of view in this thread!

So its not OK for a Chinese company to sue Apple over patent infringement when their patent was granted in 2006 and Siri started in 2007, but it is OK for Apple to sue a polish grocery store for using this logo below.




The mind boggles!
 
Wait, China recognizes patent/copyright laws? Since when?


Totally agree with you here, they just steal from everybody without any concerns.

Let's have a look on the iPhone imitations. They even had a fake Apple Store without law enforcement or government investigate how that was open to public.
 
Some strange points of view in this thread!

So its not OK for a Chinese company to sue Apple over patent infringement when their patent was granted in 2006 and Siri started in 2007, but it is OK for Apple to sue a polish grocery store for using this logo below.


[url=http://www5.pcmag.com/media/images/357858-a-pl-logo.jpg?thumb=y]Image
[/URL]

The mind boggles!

Indeed the mind boggles, as I really cannot find any reference to the polish grocery store case (which you may want to do some better research on, as it's obviously not about the logo that you have linked) in this thread.

My interpretation of quite a few opinions in this thread is that it's kind of ironic that a Chinese company is sueing Apple within the Chinese system which is not exactly famous for being strict when it comes to "products being inspired by other products".
 
Get over yourselves. Sometimes other companies invent good things before Apple. If they build a Siri-like thing first, they deserve their rewards just as if Apple built some feature first and someone copies them later. Why is the patent system stupid & outdated when it works against Apple but celebrated when it works for Apple?

If Xiaoi had the same interface and functionality Siri had from the get go, why didn't they try to settle months ago? It just doesn't make sense to try to dispute this after almost 2 years of Siri being released. Siri hasn't really changed and was widely publicized, they should have taken action when it was first released if this was the case.
 
Here's a timeline for the Siri:

http://www.sri.com/work/timeline/siri

As you can see, the research for this project actually began in 2003 or prior to 2003. I'm not saying who may be at fault but I would like to apply the following general rule for awarding software patents or patents in general:

One can be granted a patent if and only if they are the first to publish the work or research for an idea. For example, if person A publishes a research paper and person B reads an attempts to file a patent based on the paper of person A, then the patent will not be granted to person B and can be only granted to person A. Furthermore, this rule should be observed world wide; when you file for a patent, it will be recognized by all.

Next, I would like to state that personal assistants have been around for as long as 1966. Please think back to 'Star Trek' where crew members would initiate commands like 'Computer: locate Captain Kirk' and the computer would respond with something like 'Captain Kirk is not on the Enterprise'. This is just another implementation of a personal assistant which uses a different deployment platform (i.e. space ship computer) instead of a cell phone. Furthermore, this work for the TV series has been researched and published back in 1966 or prior to 1966.

Finally, I would like to consider patents are truly original ideas instead of people and/or companies today trying to steal from the past.
 
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