Suing Siri

It seems that China has recently discovered the power of the court system, especially concerning patent lawsuits, and are taking full advantage of that.  Apple, Inc. is paying the price.

Apple has been hit by three different lawsuits from China, all alleging that Apple infringed on patents from certain technological services originally offered by Chinese companies.

After Apple finally settled with a firm in China for $60 million over the use of the iPad name, which was allegedly Trademarked by Proview, a Chinese company.  Now, Apple faces two additional lawsuits from China:

1.) Siri lawsuit; and
2.) Snow Leopard lawsuit.

One of the lawsuits is over Apple's Siri, which is a robotic voice assistant included in each of Apple's iPhone 4S devices.

The suit alleges that the idea for Siri was first patented by an Internet Technology firm in China, Zhi Zhen, except it was called Zaio i Robot.  The Internet Technology firm alleges that they thought of the idea in 2004, and it was approved in 2006.

Apparently the firm attempted to settle with Apple through mediation, out of court, in May; however, after not receiving a response from Apple, the company officially sued Apple yesterday.

The other lawsuit filed in China against Apple, Inc. relates to Apple's Snow Leopard operating system in Mac computers, released in 2009.  Chinese firm, Jiangsu Xuebao, alleges that Apple infringed on its trademark of Snow Leopard; the company claims that they registered their equivalent of Snow Leopard in 2000.

Apple has yet to comment on the lawsuits.