Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs
A Delaware federal court docket has ordered Amazon to pay $46.7 million for infringing on 4 patents belonging to VB Property with Amazon’s Echo good audio system and Alexa digital assistant. A lawsuit from Nuance Communications-owned VB Property, beforehand often called VoiceBox Applied sciences, claimed to have already invented a round speaker that might hook up with the net and reply voice-dictated prompts with a feminine, robotic voice.
Wednesday’s judgment [PDF], initially reported by Reuters, orders Amazon to pay the sum by way of running royalty slightly than a lump sum. The ruling follows a jury verdict [PDF] discovering that Amazon infringed upon 4 of VoiceBox’s patents. The patents relate to offering network-coordinated conversational companies, a conversational voice person interface, and tying ads to pure language processing of voice-based enter. VB Property initially accused Amazon of infringing on six of its patents.
Amazon nonetheless has time to enchantment the judgment, and VoiceBox has time to hunt reimbursement for associated prices.
Patent infringement claims
VoiceBox claimed that it developed a prototype of one thing much like Echo and Alexa lengthy earlier than Amazon’s merchandise had been introduced. In reality, its lawsuit, filed in 2019 [PDFs], included a hyperlink to a video on YouTube showing to be a information report about VoiceBox’s “Cybermind” prototype. The video seemingly reveals a report from Seattle’s King 5 Information from 2006, demoing somebody asking a speaker questions like, “Pc, what’s the NBA schedule?” and “Pc, what’s the forecast for Sunday?” in addition to prompts, resembling “Pc, discover me a superb recipe for chocolate cheesecake.” A voice from the speaker responds to the questions or prompts, reportedly by pulling solutions from the Web or the related pc.
You may take a look at the cited video and the prototype in motion beneath:
Seattle’s King 5 Information in 2006.
The lawsuit claimed VoiceBox’s founders started work on bringing pure language understanding to pc purposes in 2001. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, VoiceBox has made voice-controlled apps for TomTom and different GPS manufacturers and vehicles, Reuters famous.
VoiceBox’s lawsuit claimed VoiceBox demoed a voice assistant for Lexus vehicles known as Alexus “that showcased the facility of its conversational Voice expertise.” The lawsuit claimed that the “’Alexus’ idea was launched to the general public greater than six months earlier than Amazon introduced ‘Alexa.'”
Like different patent cases towards tech giants, the lawsuit additionally claimed that Amazon invited VoiceBox staff into conferences about VoiceBox’s applied sciences, solely to finish up ripping off the corporate’s concepts and poaching staff. VoiceBox’s lawsuit claimed VoiceBox first met with Amazon in 2011 “to discover a possible enterprise relationship the place VoiceBox Applied sciences would offer core [natural language understanding] companies to Amazon.” Amazon introduced the Amazon Echo and Alexa in 2014. VoiceBox additionally claimed to have had conferences about its patents with Amazon in 2017.
Amazon did not reply to Ars Technica’s request for remark.
One other highway bump for Alexa
The judgment handed down this week contrasts a 2021 ruling in a Delaware federal court docket discovering that Alexa doesn’t infringe upon patents by IPA Applied sciences Inc., as Reuters reported. Whereas not almost as sizeable a judgment as we have seen in different latest patent circumstances and a drop within the bucket by way of Amazon’s overall revenue, the ruling towards Amazon comes at an inconvenient time of uncertainty and flux for its voice assistant.
On the finish of 2022, Enterprise Insider reported that Alexa was poised to lose Amazon $10 billion that 12 months. Amazon by no means confirmed that determine, however there is not any denying that voice assistant peddlers have been desperately brainstorming methods to attempt to improve the quantity of income such applied sciences generate. Amazon’s long-time units head, David Limp, can be leaving the corporate this 12 months.
Hoping to show issues round, Amazon in September revealed its generative AI Alexa ambitions and hopes that the voice assistant will finally change into so superior and useful that clients shall be keen to pay a subscription fee to make use of its most spectacular options. Nonetheless, Amazon is years away from making that concept viable.