Apple loses China patent case, separate suit against Apple continues

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Wed Jul 9, 2014, 02:32 PM - Edit history (4)

Source: Reuters

BEIJING Wed Jul 9, 2014 7:19am EDT

(Reuters) - A Beijing court has ruled against Apple Inc by upholding the validity of a patent held by a Chinese company, clearing the way for the Chinese company to continue its own case against Apple for infringing intellectual property rights.

Apple had taken Shanghai-based 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.

But the Beijing First Intermediate Court on Tuesday decided in Zhizhen's favor, the People's Daily state newspaper reported on Wednesday.

After the verdict, Apple said it intended to take the case to the Beijing Higher People's Court, according to the People's Daily.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/09/us-apple-china-idUSKBN0FE0DR20140709

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Extremely important disclaimers:

I own shares of Apple stock. I have them in a "normal" brokerage account and in a Roth IRA brokerage account. This decision affects me, because it affects the price of Apple stock. It affects everyone who owns Apple stock in an IRA or index fund or directly. That's a lot of people in this country.

I did not start this thread to jack up the price of Apple stock. I started it because Apple, under Steve Jobs, was eager to sue everyone it could. So were a lot of tech companies.

The size of China's market makes this decision especially important to Apple or to any firm that relies on intellectual property.

I am most assuredly not in the 1%. I am also not a fanboy. Your mileage may vary. Not yet available in Iowa. Apply directly to forehead.

[onehandle]

1. Patent troll cases hit Apple, Google, Microsoft, others constantly.

You could fill LBN with similar headlines every day.

[Xithras]

10. Except this isn't a patent troll. Apple will end up paying out on this one.

Little I Robot is a real application and voice conversation platform that originally debuted for MSN Chat a decade ago and is used in everything from television sets and call centers to kiosks. The company that created it, like all companies, patented aspects of their new invention over five years before Siri was even hinted at to the public. Though they came later, they also have a voice assistant application similar to Siri that they built on their existing technology.

Unless the patent is overly broad (and according to this court, it's not), then Apple is legally in the wrong. If they wanted to avoid paying out, they should have done a better patent search before releasing the product. They put themselves into this position.

[n2doc]

2. Maybe Apple will stop making products over there?

Probably not, but it would be a nice fallout.

[Ezlivin]

3. I had hoped their Austin facility was a harbinger

I think it makes a lot of sense to bring production back "home" to avoid intellectual property theft. I'd love to see Apple bring all of its production back to the States.

And I'd like a genuinely liberal president and a pony, too.

[FreakinDJ]

4. "And I'd like a genuinely liberal president and a pony, too."

At least one that stops rolling over for Wall St. constantly

- I didn't mean the pony


Interesting how this plays out since they have been trying to give away the Store (the American Worker) in their TPP negotiations to maintain and enforce intellectual property rights and copyrights in Asian countries

[valerief]

5. Yeah, but this decision affects the 1%, not workers. Workers don't matter. nt

[FailureToCommunicate]

6. "A Beijing court has ruled against Apple..."

There are loads of Apple bashers here ready to click "reply" to the OP, and maybe they'd have some valid points, but, jeesh, a BEIJING court?

The country with STATE SPONSORED hacking of intellectual property rights?

Give me a break.

[Dreamer Tatum]

7. You're critiquing state-sponsored hacking? Really?

Ever heard of the NSA?

[tomm2thumbs]

9. I know, right?

<face palm>

[MisterP]

8. Chinese courts do tend to be held in Chinese cities: ya want them to move the trial

to Vladivostok or Palo Alto?