Nvidia Hit With Patent Suit Over Google Digital Assistant
By Kat Greene
Law360, Los Angeles (March 20, 2017, 6:26 PM EDT) -- A Wi-LAN Inc. unit accused Nvidia Corp. of profiting off its patents for a digital voice assistant on tablets and televisions, saying the company’s Google voice assistant products are all infringing technology picked up from Apple Inc.’s Siri, according to a Delaware federal complaint on Friday.
IPA Technologies Inc. said that Nvidia’s products that use Google Inc.’s Android operating system are stepping on its U.S. Patent Nos. 6,742,021; 6,523,061; and 6,757,718, which cover a digital voice assistant and cards that display selected information based on a user’s search results and other personal factors.
The products in question, which include Nvidia’s Shield Tablet K1 and Android TV, include a feature once branded Google Now that allows users to conduct searches or access digital features within the product by voice, a system IPA picked up from Apple’s Siri Inc., according to the suit.
“For example, the Nvidia Google Now-enabled products use speech-based navigation of an electronic data source,” IPA said in its suit. “The Nvidia Google Now-enabled products receive a spoken request for desired information from the user ... and transmit the selected portion from a network server to the Nvidia Google Now-enabled products.”
The technology was originally invented by SRI International Inc., a nonprofit institute that had been building a personal digital assistant as part of one of the world’s largest artificial intelligence projects, according to the complaint. The AI project, funded by the U.S Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was meant to create ways for computers to assist human decision-makers, the company said.
Once SRI had a workable voice assistant, it formed a spinoff company called Siri Inc. in 2007, to which it gave a nonexclusive license to the patent portfolio, according to the suit.
Siri was demonstrated at first as an iPhone app and in April 2010, Apple acquired Siri. In 2011, Siri’s personal digital assistant became an integrated feature of the iPhone.
IPA in May 2016 acquired the SRI speech-based navigation patent portfolio, which it’s now asserting in several lawsuits against technology companies that create a platform for Google’s own version of a voice assistant, court records show.
The Nvidia suit was filed on Friday, but it’s only the latest in a string of filings by IPA seeking to assert its patents for the digital voice assistant. The Nvidia suit from Friday is related to 13 others in Delaware court, according to the docket.
IPA has also sued companies including Dish Network Corp., HTC Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Sony Corp., Lenovo Inc. and Motorola Mobility LLC, court records show. Those cases have been peppering Delaware’s docket since Dec. 9, and the defendant companies are each just beginning to respond to the allegations against them, according to filings in the cases.
Apple itself has faced patent litigation over its Siri function, according to court records.
For example, in August, Apple reached a deal to end a patent suit brought by Dot23 Technologies Inc. in Eastern Texas over voice recognition technology. And a different case brought by Unwired Planet LLC over voice recognition patents, which had been killed by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in May 2015 but later revived by the Federal Circuit, is gearing up for a trial next month, according to that docket.
Nvidia declined to comment. A representative for IPA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The patents-in-suit are U.S. Patent Nos. 6,742,021; 6,523,061; and 6,757,718.
IPA Technologies is represented in all cases by Marc A. Fenster, Adam S. Hoffman, Amir A. Naini, Brian D. Ledahl and Shani Williams of Russ August & Kabat, and Stephen B. Brauerman and Sara E. Bussiere of Bayard PA.
Counsel information for Nvidia couldn’t be immediately determined.
The case is IPA Technologies Inc. v. Nvidia Corp., case number 1:17-cv-00287, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
--Additional reporting by Ryan Davis and Alex Wolf. Editing by Kelly Duncan.
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