Siri Lands Apple In Hot Waters Once Again

Moiz Khan Jul 17, 2018

This time it’s a lawsuit that claims Apple’s voice technology is responsible for infringing on the patents belonging to another company. Apple has previously filed lawsuits against other brands and has been slapped with quite a few lawsuits itself. Sometime’s a consumer takes the giant to court or another tech company and we have grown used to that. What’s new this time is that the troubled voice assistant has landed Apple in a lawsuit filed by Advanced Voice Recognition Systems.

The infamous Siri violates Speech Recognition and Transcription Among Users Having Heterogenous Protocols. After this infringement, the products that are under risk are iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and everything that has Siri on it.

It is Alleged that Apple got to know about this violation in 2013 which is precisely 2 years after the launch of Siri in 2011. Since then, AVRS have offered Apple a license to the 730 patent which got denied. The Advanced Voice Recognition Systems own the patent from 2001 which was modified to the current state in 2009. AVRS currently holds six patents covering the same technology including 730 Patent and are expecting to get royalty damages for the giants unauthorized use of the patent.

It is worth noting that AVRS is a non-practicing entity that acquired the patent in 2013. Another aspect of the story that has unfolded is their unwillingness to sue google or Samsung for voice recognition in off-device processing for the user. Targeting Siri will impact Apple the most since it offers the virtual assistant in almost all products.

“We believe our patents are among the most valuable of our assets and we intend to vigorously enforce our rights,” said AVRS CEO Walter Geldenhuys.