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Apple Facing $1.4 Billion Lawsuit by Chinese AI Firm in Siri Patent Battle

Aoligei said:
Well, Apple can certain pull out from China. No one is stopping them to do so.

But if you care to look at Apple’s financial statement, you see that greater China account 15% of Apple’s net sale.

If Apple and its investors willing to let go that 15% net sale, then by all means.

The void that Apple left could easily filled by Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, Huawei and so on. Or Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Acer etc for computers.

Really, China doesn’t need Apple and Apple need China, for its sales, supply chains, manufacturing etc.
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Not sure what the 15% of net sales would be in dollars; however, 1.4 billion isn't a small number and if Apple pays it, this could lead to much more fines from China in the future.
 
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Wreckus said:
Not sure what the 15% of net sales would be in dollars; however, 1.4 billion isn't a small number and if Apple pays it, this could lead to much more fines from China in the future.
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The 2019 revenue in greater China area was 43.7 billion and represents 17% of its global revenue. Revenue in the first quarter of 2020 is 13.58 revenue. Apple's peak revenue in this area is 58.7 billion in 2015 accounting for 25% of its global revenue.

All IP related lawsuits claim huge amount. I personally think it will not be easy for Zhizhen to win the law suit. Even if it wins, I don't think it will get anywhere close to what they demand.
 
coldwaves said:
The bias in the comments here on the forum is appalling, but perhaps not surprising. It is important to look into the details to know what happens. For many people, when a US company is alleged to violate IP, it is always a victim of unfair trial or a victim of patent troll. When a Chinese company is alleged to violate IP, it is always Chinese stealing tech.
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I had to re-read the ten comments above yours to find what you consider 'appalling.' Can't find it. Which of those comments do you consider 'appalling,' out of curiosity.
 
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I expect that they won’t score a single renminbi, but China certainly can make it more difficult for Apple to sell in their closed market.
 
America, EU countries, and all other aligned nations should ban import and sale of all apps, computers, and other tech owned by Chinese firms. China cannot be trusted to behave and keep user data private and similarly cannot be trusted to respect the IP of others. Chinese firms will not stand up to their own government like Apple stood up to the FBI. They can't do that over there because they would get arrested and eventually "disappear".

The only way to change China, politically, is by damaging it economically.
 
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BaltimoreMediaBlog said:
Meanwhile, the Houston Chinese consulate was recently seen burning documents after the U.S. forced its closure from theft of secrets.
This case now has nothing to do with actual patent infringement anymore. It is now strictly an international political argument and spy game between the United States and China which China will not win, well unless someone more influence by China is elected President.
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this isn’t surprising, we do the same when we lose consulates to rioting or in anticipation of losing security of the complexes.
 
coldwaves said:
If you actually read the article, you will see that Zhizhen applied for patent in 2004 and Apple acquired Siri in 2010. It is not until Oct 2011 Apple released a beta version of Siri on iPhone 4s. Zhizhen cannot copy something nonexistent.
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If only it was that simple. "Mac OS 8 and 9 has optional voice recognition software, which takes your speech and turns it into commands to control your computer. (...) English Speech Recognition can be found on the Mac OS CD-ROM: under CD Extras: Universal Access: Easy Access." - BBC Website

Mac OS 8 came out in 1997 and Mac OS 9 came out in 1999.

More over "Siri is a spin-out from the SRI International Artificial Intelligence Center, and is an offshoot of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA)-funded CALO project" (reference - SIRI RISING: The Inside Story Of Siri’s Origins — And Why She Could Overshadow The iPhone )

The article itself has this piece of information: "In 2003, the agency’s investment arm, DARPA, tapped the non-profit research institute SRI International to lead a five-year, 500-person effort to build a virtual assistant, one the government hoped might yield software to help military commanders with both information overload and office chores."

If that little trip into the patent rabbit hold isn't enough there is Who invented Siri? Apple sued for patent infringement - who else might be in line?

So there is previous work going back to 2003 (one year before the Zhizhen patent) with related previous work going back to 1999 (five years before the Zhizhen patent) with a somewhat similar patent (US7558730) from 2001 (three years before the Zhizhen patent)

Aren't patents fun?
 
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Next they will try to sue Arthur C Clarke’s Estate and the writers of Red Dwarf for coming up with all the ideas for digital virtual assistants.
 
coldwaves said:
If you actually read the article, you will see that Zhizhen applied for patent in 2004 and Apple acquired Siri in 2010. It is not until Oct 2011 Apple released a beta version of Siri on iPhone 4s. Zhizhen cannot copy something nonexistent.
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Whaaaaaaat? Read the article?!? No self-respecting MR forum poster would actually read an article before posting. What are you thinking?
 
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coldwaves said:
The bias in the comments here on the forum is appalling, but perhaps not surprising.
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While I agree to some extent, that kind of bias doesn't just spring up out of nowhere. China generally has a long and pathetic record when it comes to protecting the IP of non-Chinese companies in their own border. Regardless of the merits of this specific case, the negative reaction is not all bias, not even close.
 
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inkswamp said:
While I agree to some extent, that kind of bias doesn't just spring up out of nowhere. China generally has a long and pathetic record when it comes to protecting the IP of non-Chinese companies in their own border. Regardless of the merits of this specific case, the negative reaction is not all bias, not even close.
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I don’t know you age. But if you are old enough, you might remember we called Japanese or Koreans exactly same thing around 80s and 90s.

I don’t know how many of people here remember we once called Japanese IP theft, currency manipulator, killing American jobs etc.

For example six Hitachi executives were arrested in an FBI sting relating to IBM technology. Fujitsu was blocked from acquiring Fairchild Computer on national security grounds.

It is literally the same accusation every single time. It was Japan, then it was Korea, now it is China.
 
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Apple is stuck in the middle of a big old 'tit for tat' trade war with China that a giant buffoon has started.

You know who I'm talking about.

This can only impact Apple, new releases, its global customers and its supply chain.
 
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Is Google's or Amazon's AI assistant "technical architecture" very different? If they made their assitants available in China would they be subject to this lawsuit too? (assuming they aren't available currently)
 
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