In an unexpected move, Chinese search engine giant Baidu has launched a lawsuit against tech titan Apple for alleged intellectual property rights violation. According to the complaint, Apple has enabled counterfeit versions of Baidu’s natural language processing engine Ernie to be sold on its App Store, in violation of Chinese law.
Ernie is a strong natural language processing system that may be used to power chatbots, virtual assistants, and translation services. It competes directly with OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology and has been widely embraced by many Chinese technology enterprises.
According to Baidu, Apple has permitted various apps on its App Store to use fake versions of Ernie, allowing the firm to benefit from the technology without its authorization. Baidu alleges that it has frequently urged Apple to remove these apps from the App Store, but the tech behemoth has taken no action.
Baidu is suing Apple for 100 million Yuan (roughly $15 million) in damages in a case filed in Beijing. In addition, the business wants Apple to cease distributing any apps that violate its intellectual property rights.
This isn’t the first time Apple has been accused of enabling counterfeit versions of technology to be sold on its App Store. Epic Games brought a similar case against Apple in 2020 for allowing fake versions of its popular game Fortnite to be sold in the store. The lawsuit is currently ongoing.
The lawsuit filed by Baidu against Apple is simply another illustration of the escalating conflict between Chinese and American IT businesses. The Chinese government has been cracking down on internet businesses in the nation, and American tech companies operating in China have come under increased scrutiny.
The outcome of this litigation remains to be determined, but it is evident that the war for supremacy in the natural language processing field is heating up. With ChatGPT and Ernie competing for market share, it will be fascinating to watch which technology triumphs.
