Chinese Company Sues Apple Over Siri

judgecorp writes "Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology is suing Apple in China, claiming Siri infringes its voice technology patent. Zhizhen claims to have 100 million users for its Xiao iRobot software which responds to voice questions and commands. From the article: 'The move came only days after Apple Inc paid $60 million to Proview Technology (Shenzhen) to end a protracted legal dispute over the iPad trademark in China. Zhizhen's patent covers "a type of instant messaging chat robot system", according to the database of the country's State Intellectual Property Office. It was filed on Aug 13, 2004, and got approved on Feb 15, 2006. '"

Re:Huh?

[Dyinobal]

Actually I think china is pretty aggressive in protecting its industries from foreign patent infringement it just isn't so aggressive in protecting western countries from infringement.

Re:Huh?

[ArhcAngel]

More to the point. The company in question many times manufactures product for said US competitor and simply continue to manufacture them off hours sans the logo.

Re:Huh?

[troon]

Wow. You win the prize for the worst spelling of "ridiculous".

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

CIA world factbook says 1.3 billion. That's not "billions".

Re:Huh?

[Grishnakh]

Why should they be? The USA wasn't aggressive in protecting British IP holders from infringement back in the 17-1800s, in fact they didn't enforce that at all, and the USA made a bunch of money as a result.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Companies are just more afraid of Microsoft

[Quila]

Microsoft is getting $5 for every Android phone from HTC, Motorola, and probably the rest because Microsoft threatened to sue over patents.

Re:Huh?

[Grishnakh]

Perhaps, but it is a great example of history repeating itself. Back in the 1700s, Britain was the major world power, and made a lot of money with IP laws and demanded that everyone else respect them, and instead America ignored them and made cheaper copies and made a fortune at it; before long, Britain was a has-been and America was the major power.

Now, a couple hundred years later, history is repeating itself. America, which got rich partially by ignoring IP laws and making cheaper copies of stuff, is bitching and whining that others are copying their stuff and demanding their IP laws be enforced worldwide, while China ignores them and makes cheaper copies of stuff and is making a fortune doing it.

I guess it just shows how little people learn from history.