Judge recuses himself in Connecticut Apple Siri trial
updated 12:50 am EDT, Fri October 26, 2012
Connection to Apple unclear, likely stock ownership
District Court Judge Gary Sharpe has recused himself from a lawsuit involving Apple's Siri technology because of his potential conflict of interest involving Apple. In removing himself, he cited the law that said "any conduct that would lead a reasonable [person] knowing all the circumstances to the conclusion that the judge's 'impartiality might reasonably be questioned' is a basis for the judge's disqualification." The judge's Apple connection to the case outside the courtroom hasn't been made clear.
Dynamic Advances, LLC out of Texas claims that Apple is infringing on a voice recognition technology that it has exclusively licensed from patent owners Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. According to Cnet, Dynamic Advances was created last year by known patent troll Erich Spangenberg.
The complaint filed on Friday says that the patent in question has been cited in patent applications by Apple, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Google, and Sony. "Apple has infringed and continues to infringe, either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents, one or more claims of the '798 Patent by processing natural-language inputs in the United States," the complaint reads. "For example, on information and belief, Apple's Siri personal assistant, available for select iPhones, iPads, and iPods, includes technology claimed in the '798 Patent."
