Apple’s attempts to get the rights for its Siri voice activated search technology recognised behind the bamboo curtain have failed.
A Beijing court has ruled that a Chinese company invented the technology and this was copied by Apple.
This clears the way for the Chinese company to continue its own case against Apple for infringing intellectual property rights.
Zhizhen sued the US firm in 2012 for intellectual property rights infringement, saying Apple’s Siri used on devices including the iPhone violated Zhizhen’s own voice system patents.
Apple had sued Zhizhen Internet Technology and China’s State Intellectual Property Office to court to seek a ruling that Zhizhen’s patent rights to a speech recognition technology were invalid.
According to the People’s Daily state newspaper the Beijing First Intermediate Court ruled in Zhizhen’s favour.
Apple said it intended to take the case to the Beijing Higher People’s Court.
In a statement, Apple said it did not know about Zhizhen’s patent before it introduced Siri and it did not believe it was using it anyway.
