Recently, the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court made the first instance judgement that the decision of remaining the invention patent of  the "type of chatbot system" effective made by the Patent Reexamination Board is maintained.

In 2011, Apple launched a new product iPhone4s. The product contained a voice recognition software Siri, which attracted the attention of Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Zhizhen). Shanghai Zhizhen has started developing and applying artificial intelligence since 2003 and has had a invention patent of the "type of chatbot system". After careful comparison and analysis, Shanghai Zhizhen believed that Apple's Siri as an intelligent network robot product suspected of infringement the patent.

In june 2012, Shanghai Zhizhen officially initiated the lawsuit in the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court. It sued Apple Computer Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Apple Shanghai) as well as Apple for allegedly infringing its Chinese patent with Siri. Apple immediately made reaction. In november 2012, Apple Shanghai requested the Patent Reexamination Board  to invalidate Shanghai Zhizhen's patent.

In september 2013, the Patent Reexamination Board made the No. 21307 decision of remaining inforce the involved patent. Apple Shanghai appealed to Beijing's No.1 Intermediate People's Court to overturn that decision.

July 8, 2014, the Beijing's No.1 Intermediate People's Court made the first instance judgement. It didn't support the causes of action stated by Apple Shanghai. Thus, the court maintained the No. 21307 decision made by the Patent Reexamination Board. Apple had decided to appeal to the Beijing Supreme People's Court. CIPNews will continue to follow the case. 

 (China IP News)