Cupertino-based Apple is on a roll again. With record-breaking sales of its Apple Watch came another court victory in China over patent infringement.

Zeenews reports that the Beijing Higher People's Court upheld the appeal by Apple over a decision by the Patent Review Committee of the State Intellectual Property Office, the intellectual property agency in China, to declare that the original patent of Zhizhen for an intelligent personal assistant was effective.

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Zhizhen Network Technology, based in Shanghai, filed in 2012 a lawsuit against Apple, claiming that Siri is an infringement of its patent for Xiao I Robot, which it claimed worked in a similar way as Siri.

Zhizhen launched the Xiao I Robot in 2003, using it as a chat bot for MSN, Yahoo Messenger and other networks. It has expanded the use to its Android and iOS platforms.

In July 2014, Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court decided in favor of Zhizhen, prompting Apple to appeal the decision to a higher court.

Apple rolled out Siri in 2011, together with the launch of the iPhone 4S. In July, an Apple spokeswoman in Beijing said in an email to Reuters, "Unfortunately, we were not aware of Zhizhen's patent before we introduced Siri (speech recognition technology) and we do not believe we are using this patent," quoted Tech Times.

In a statement, the Beijing court said, "The move means Apple's Siri voice recognition system did not infringe the protected rights of other patents and Apple fans can continue enjoying the conveniences brought by the technology."

However, Apple's victory is still not 100 percent because the court only decided on the intellectual property agency's decision and not the lawsuit filed by Zhizhen in which hearings started in 2013, but the verdict is still pending.

TagsSiri