Microsoft Loses Cortana Voice Patent Case

A federal jury in Delaware has awarded IPA Technologies a $242 million verdict in a patent lawsuit against Microsoft related to the voice technology that Microsoft used in its Cortana voice assistant.

IPA bought the patent and others from SRI International, whose technology is the basis for the Siri virtual assistant on Apple mobile phones. Apple aquired SRI in 2010.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters that the company plans to appeal the verdict. Microsoft discontinued Cortana last year.

IPA filed the lawsuit in 2018. IPA has also sued Google and Amazon over similar patent disputes. Amazon prevailed in its suit in 2021, and the Google case is still pending.