Apple is going through tough times in China. Its Siri personal assistant technology infringes the patent filed by Shanghai’s Zhizhen Network Technology Co.
One year ago once Apple has launched Siri's support in Cantonese and Mandarin in China, it has promptly been sued by ZhiZhen who produced Xiao i Robot for both iOS and Android. Xiao i Robot uses speech recognition to deliver news, weather, and other updates to users.
“The company will ask Apple to stop manufacturing and selling products using its patent rights, once Apple’s infringement is confirmed,” the company’s lawyer told the AFP. Unsurprisingly, he added that the company doesn’t “exclude the possibility of demanding compensation in the future.”
This aggressive tactics pursued by the Chinese company can hurt Apple's sales in China drastically. Zhizhen, however, is not a troll, but a real company producing voice recognition apps for profit. The differences between Siri and Xiao i Robot can be seen at the following video:
Apple has already been involved in patent lawsuits and has settled down for $ 60 million in the case against Proview and its ownership of Ipad.
Apple clearly is facing a difficult situation in building its market share in China especially after the attack on it by Chinese Media:
Apple, like many foreign companies, is not familiar with patent law system in China. The protective mentality of Chinese government also prevents Apple to establish a well patent profile in China. I would expect more foreign companies will get patent lawsuit against them in the name of infringement.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to the Facebook situation whereupon a company like Apple infringes on legal rights or isn't fully supported by the government, it is difficult to establish your portfolio in the country. China is a great potential market for major corporations to expand into but before that can happen, they will need almost full cooperation with the Chinese government.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be difficult for the Chinese government to cooperate with Apple. The Chinese government would support its own local business than the foreign company, unless Apple team up with some Chinese companies. For example, Apple can follow a similar path of Lenovo and IBM.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, from watching the video, it seems that not only is the technology being infringed but even the shiny microphone design of the Siri "button". I find this ironic considering that Apple has drawn lots of attention recently for executing patent litigation concerning design. I wonder if Zizhen will keep their lawsuit technology only, or discuss the design issues as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's the lack of familiarity of the patent system that's causing Apple to have a hard time in China. China has in its own best interests to protect their business and technology in the smart phone market. It's less of a corporate interest and more of a national interest. I have good reason to believe there are other motivations behind the win of the ZhiZhen voice recognition software patent.
ReplyDeleteWow this is really itneresting, seeing a relatively unknown company actually hurt a tech giant on its attempt to takeover a potentially billion person consumer base is something which will be felt worldwide. This is a nice find.
ReplyDeleteInteresting.. where is the patent claim filed? my questions are how does a Chinese company assert against an American one? At the same time, how would Apple defend against this?
ReplyDeleteIt very rare nowadays to hear of an actual company competing with Apple. The fact that Zhizen asserts its own IP, is not a troll, and is an actual company is amazing. This case could be critical to Apple, because much of the manufacturing occurs in China. With this ban, Apple will have to find another place.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty comical that China is taking intellectual property seriously here.
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