Apple Faces Lawsuit Over Siri and Virtual Keyboard: Patent Infringement Claims Filed

Once again this year, Apple finds itself the target of a lawsuit. Previously pursued for misleading advertising related to Siri, the Cupertino company is now being accused of patent infringements involving its voice assistant as well as features of its virtual keyboard.

Apple continues to navigate through legal challenges. Earlier in the year, the company was subject to multiple class action lawsuits for misleading advertising, with users claiming they were deceived by announcements of Siri improvements through Apple Intelligence that remained unavailable.

It appears that the vocal assistant continues to be a source of trouble for Apple. Cerence, a subsidiary of Nuance Communications, is taking legal action against the tech giant for alleged patent violations related to Siri’s voice recognition and virtual keyboard features.

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Company Sues Apple Over Patent Violations Related to Siri and Virtual Keyboard

In the case reported by Android Headlines, Cerence claims that Apple has violated several U.S. patents, which include the voice command “Hey Siri” and certain features found in virtual keyboards. Two patents in particular have titles that directly relate to the allegations against the Cupertino-based company: one for “Methods and apparatus for detecting a voice command” (No. 9,361,885), and another for “System and method for continuous text input on a virtual keyboard” (No. 7,453,439).

The lawsuit highlights the ongoing disputes over software patents: how to determine which apps and features developed by tech giants like Google and Apple are truly original creations? And how many have been acquired or licensed through patents? It’s worth noting that Siri’s voice recognition technology was initially powered by technology from Nuance.

This lawsuit could signal the beginning of another prolonged legal battle for Apple. This isn’t the first litigation challenge it has faced. The well-known legal battle with Samsung spanned years and resulted in sales and import bans for some devices from both companies.

Currently, it’s unclear whether Apple will seek an out-of-court settlement or if the case will proceed to trial. According to Cerence, Apple is aware of these patents; Cupertino even mentioned the Nuance subsidiary in its own patent applications. Although Cerence has communicated with Apple, no agreement has been reached so far.