OREANDA-NEWS. The Chinese technology company Xiao-i has filed a lawsuit in the High People’s Court of Shanghai City for patent infringement by American corporation Apple.

According to the newspaper Beijing News, the developer from China demands that Apple pay compensation in the amount of 10 billion yuan (about 1.4 billion US dollars) and suspend the sale of products equipped with the virtual assistant Siri.

Xiao-i claims that Apple used technology similar in architecture to the chatbot developed by the Chinese company. In 2004, Xiao-i filed a patent application for its virtual assistant invention, and it was approved in 2009.

In 2011, Apple launched Siri.

Next year, Xiao-i filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in the Shanghai Intermediate People’s Court. In the course of considering this lawsuit, the American corporation applied to the State Intellectual Property Office of China with a request to invalidate the Chinese patent. After 8 years of litigation, the Chinese Supreme People’s Court upheld the invention patent of Xiao-i. Thus, it allows the Chinese company to reopen the claim against Apple.