A Chinese artificial intelligence company has decided to sue Apple for an alleged patent infringement related to Siri. It asks for $ 1.4 billion from the American giant in damages.
Siri: Chinese company sues Apple for $1.4 billion
Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology Co. sued Apple in court in Shanghai, China, claiming its products violated its patent. This is a patent related to a virtual assistant, whose technical architecture is similar to that of Siri.
As part of the lawsuit, Shanghai Zhizhen wants Apple to immediately stop “the production, use, sale and import” of all products that infringe the patent. This new trial is the culmination of numerous disputes between the two companies that have been running since March 2013.
The patent infringement would refer to the assistant Xiao-i, born as a chatbot for MSN and similar networks, to then migrate to other platforms, notably Android and iOS. The Chinese company has obtained the patent in 2009 while Siri was debuted in 2011.
Apple will therefore once again have to justify itself for this patent, a matter that may last for many years to come.
Apple: earnings and revenue exceed expectations in the past quarter
The company ended its fiscal 2020 third quarter on June 27. The company has released a related report recently.
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During the reporting period, the revenue of $59.685 billion was generated. In annual terms, this indicator increased by 11%. The report clarifies that product sales brought $46.529 billion, and services – the remaining $13.156 billion. International sales accounted for 60% of the quarterly revenue.
Operating income for the year increased from $11.544 to $13.091 billion, and net income increased from $10.044 to $11.253 billion.
Note that operating expenses increased from $8.683 to $9.589 billion, including from $4.257 to $4.758 billion in research and development spending.
iPhones were sold in the quarter for $26.418 billion, Macs for $7.079 billion, iPads for $6.582 billion, wearables, home electronics and accessories for $6.450 billion. By comparison, in the third quarter of the 2019 fiscal year, iPhones sold $25.986 billion, Macs sold $5.820 billion, iPads sold $5.023 billion, and wearable electronics, home electronics and accessories sold $5.525 billion dollars.
Apple usually unveils a new smartphone series in September every year. This year, however, things will have to be different. After all, the COVID-19 has greatly disrupted the company’s production and supply chain. The company recently confirmed that the new iPhone 12 series would be missing the third quarter of this year. Instead of releasing the new phones in September, the company will unveil the new handsets in October. Now, a new report states that these handsets will be released in two stages.