Apple will hold its September event next week and unveil at least the iPhone 13 series. Now a Chinese AI company is taking legal action to stop the production and sale of the iPhone 13 and all other iPhone models in China because Siri allegedly violates its patent.
Last year, Apple was sued by the Chinese AI company Xiao-i Robot, which claims Apple infringed its patent for a virtual assistant similar to Siri. The company demanded $1.4 billion in compensation. At the time, the company demanded that Apple cease the "production, use, promise to sell, sale, and import" of all products that "infringed" the patent, which would essentially include all devices with Siri. reported South China Morning Post reports that Xiao-i-Robot has asked a Shanghai court to force Apple to stop producing and selling the iPhone. The AI company announced the injunction request on its WeChat account, just hours before Apple announced its "California streaming" event for Tuesday, September 14.
Siri is to blame: Xiao-i Robot wants to ban iPhone in China
Shanghai Zhizhen Intelligent Network Technology, also known as Xiao-i Robot, applied to the Shanghai Supreme People's Court last Friday for an injunction to prohibit the production, sale and export of iPhones with Siri that infringe its patent, according to the Chinese company's statement posted on its official WeChat account on Tuesday. Xiao-i Robot's general manager Yuan Hui said in the statement that Apple does not respect its intellectual property. Apple should immediately stop the patent infringement, withdraw the relevant products from the market and stop sales.
If the court grants Xiao-i-Robot's injunction, it could have significant implications for Apple's supply chain. While a ruling is unlikely to directly impact this month's iPhone 13 launch, it could affect future iPhone launches and trigger a stock market turmoil. In a statement to the South China Morning Post, Apple reiterated that Siri "does not include features contained in its patent related to gaming and instant messaging" and also noted that local certified Chinese reviewers "have concluded that Apple does not infringe Xiao-i-Robot's technology."
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