Apple settles Siri patent lawsuit

Apple has agreed to pay $24.9 million to settle a lawsuit relating to a long-running patent dispute over its Siri digital assistant.

A Dallas-based company, Dynamic Advances, alleged Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute originally licensed the Siri technology to it in 2007, four years before Apple launched Siri.

The technology Siri is based on was reportedly invented by Cheng Hsu, a professor at Rensselear at the time, and Veera Boonjing, a doctoral student. The patent is for a user interface that recognises natural language.

Under the terms of the agreement, Apple will pay $5 million immediately to Marathon Parent Group, the parent company of Dynamic Advances, with the remaining $19.9 million coming after certain conditions are met, as reported by the Albany Business Review.

Apple will receive a patent licence and an agreement it will not be sued again for three years. It is unclear at this stage whether further legal proceedings could pick up again after this period.

Rensselear is expected to get half that amount, according to regulatory filings cited by the publication, although the school has not agreed to that royalty rate. The dispute between Rensselear and Marathon may head towards arbitration.

Image courtesy of Vasile Cotovanu under CC-BY-2.0