We’re not sure how many of you guys recall this case, but back in 2012 Apple ran into legal trouble with its Siri voice assistant program. A company called Dynamic Advances accused Apple of violating one of their patents with Siri, and the Cupertino company has been fighting off the lawsuit over the course of the last four years.However Apple might have had enough, or maybe they realize that there is a possibility of them losing the case which is why according to reports, Apple will be settling with Dynamic Advances for a whopping $25 million ($24.9 million to be exact). The patent in question was described as a “natural language interface using constrained intermediate dictionary of results”.
It was patented by a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor, so half of the settlement will be going to them. It was also applied four years before Apple even introduced Siri, so there is some advantage there in terms of a timeline. The upside is that this lawsuit should not affect Apple or Siri negatively.
As part of the settlement, Apple will be granted a license to continue to keep using Siri. They will also no longer be subject to any lawsuits based on this particular patent for at least three years. If another company comes after Apple for a separate patent, which we have seen in the past, that would be a different story.