Ridiculous Patent Lawsuit Targets Apple’s Siri, Again

Apple has been involved in plenty of lawsuits over the years, especially with large companies like Samsung and by extension Google. The latest lawsuit, however, is a little more ridiculous than the rest.

A company called Dot 23 Technologies, which is a non-practicing entity, is looking to take Apple to court for implementing Siri, which infringes on three patents related to voice dialing and geolocation, according to the company.

The complaint was filed on Wednesday, and says that Apple is infringing on a number of voice recognition patents with Siri. Siri was first implemented into the iPhone with the launch of the iPhone 4s in 2011, so the company has sure taken its sweet time to file the complaint.

More specifically, the patents infringed upon are 6,917,802, 7,245,903, and 6,405,029, which were all granted to Byard G. Nilsson, an inventor, between the years 2002 and 2007. The patents were assigned to an LLC called Mobile Telephone Technology, before being transferred to Dot 23 in September of last year.

The ‘802 and ‘029 patents are both related to basic voice dial functions executed by intermediary programs, which are able to then process spoken numbers. In other words, iPhone users can give Siri a command like “Call 011-011-0011.” ‘029 in particular looks at a system that has a very low level of user interaction, and cues are generally generated by an automated service. It’s important to note that the technology behind Siri is much more advanced than the patents that Dot 23 describe, however Siri does technically allow users to dial phone numbers using their voice.

The ’903 patent is a little different in that it talks about services that serve “geographic-related” data when the users asks for it. It describes a system in which users can ask an automated service to discover a point of interest. For example, users can ask for an “Italian restaurant in New York,” after which the service will use geographic data to find it. Rather than using geolocation hardware, however, the patent relies on cell tower data.

When it comes to Apple, Siri basically is able to survey a location through GPS and other, similar means, pulling up Maps and guiding users to chosen destinations.

All of this stinks of a patent troll, or a company which exists only to buy patents and then sue companies that infringe on those patents. Hopefully the lawsuit will be thrown out of court. The general tech world has come to know patent trolls all too well, and unfortunately it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime in the near future.

There are a number of reasons that patent trolls are the worst – not only is it slightly sleazy to start a company just to sue other companies, but it also blocks innovation. Companies aren’t able to build on the innovations that they’ve come up with if those technologies are the subject of court appearances, and especially if the patent trolls end up winning those patents and owning the technologies involved. Once patent trolls do win patents, they most often charge companies fees for using technology related to their patents.

Siri is no stranger to legal action. At the beginning of 2014, a lawsuit involving Siri was thrown out of court after four iPhone customers sued Apple, saying that the company’s advertising related to Siri was false and misleading, and that despite being able to do so in the ads, Siri didn’t understand the questions or locations that they asked about.

Of course, Apple isn’t always defending on patent cases. In many cases, in fact, it’s the iPhone maker on the offensive, especially when it comes to Samsung devices, with legal battles between the two companies having started back in 2011. The origins of this case, however, go back to when Apple files patents for the basic design and shape of the iPhone, which was a few days before the release of the original iPhone in 2007. Apple then sued Samsung for its smartphones in 2011 for phones like the Nexus S, Galaxy S 4G, and other devices. Samsung then counter-sued Apple filing complaints in South Korean courts.

Only time will tell how the case between Apple and Dot 23 ends up, however we hope that Dot 23 gets swiftly rejected.

Learn More: Apple Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over iPhone 5/5s Data Usage