According to knowyourcell.com
MARSHALL (KYTX) - Apple is being sued by a Taiwan university in federal court in Marshall over its voice-activated assistant, better known as Siri.
Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University filed a patent infringement suit, seeking undisclosed damages against Apple in a U.S. court, according to a Monday report from Reuters.
The suit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, alleges that Apple's Siri infringes two U.S. patents it was granted in 2007 and 2010. At first glance, Texas might seem like an odd choice for the suit, but it was actually a calculated move on the university's part.
National Cheng Kung's legal manager, Yama Chen, told Reuters that they chose to file in the Texas court because of its reputation for faster processing. Chen also said that this court is also apt to rule in favor of patent owners, often awarding higher compensations.
It remains unclear how much compensation the university is seeking from Apple, but Chen noted that the amount would be based on Apple's U.S. sales of devices that use Siri (in Apple's most recent earnings statement, the company sold over 26 million units of its iPhone).
The patents in question, as you may have already guessed, deal with voice-to-text technology. Siri is currently featured in the current iPhone 4S and is supposed to be a staple of the iPhone 5 and upcoming versions of Apple's iPad.
Apple may not be the only one headed to court over its voice- recognition technology. The Taiwan university is also reportedly looking into the voice-activated systems used by both Google and Microsoft, too.
