This case is the country’s first unfair competition dispute over voice commands for smart products.
Author | Bruce
Editor | Zhao Ling
"Xiaodu Xiaodu, tomorrow's weather How about it?"
"Xiaodu Xiaodu, I want to listen to "Mojito"..."
One sentence with a specific The voice interaction starting with the "wake word" seems to be the key to opening the door to a mysterious AI. Voice commands like this, which have the function of waking up and operating products in human-computer interaction, play an important role in the application and popularization of artificial intelligence technology in daily life.
Not long ago, Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Baidu Online Company") dismissed Beijing Zile due to the "crash" "wake-up word" Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zile Company") and its product seller Beijing Jingwei Zhicheng E-Commerce Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jingwei Company") filed a lawsuit in court, requesting the two defendants to stop the conduct involved in the case and requiring Zile Company to eliminate the Impact, compensation for economic losses and reasonable expenses of 3 million yuan.
Recently, the People’s Court of Haidian District, Beijing (hereinafter referred to as the Haidian Court) made a first-instance judgment on this case, ordering Zile Company to eliminate the impact of its unfair competition and pay compensation Baidu Online Company suffered economic losses of 500,000 yuan and reasonable expenses of 50,000 yuan, totaling 550,000 yuan. It is reported that this is the country’s first unfair competition dispute case involving voice commands for smart products pronounced by the Haidian Court.
01
"Xiaodu Xiaodu" or "Xiaodu Xiaodu"?
Baidu Online Company, the plaintiff in the case, believes that the Du Yaya learning machine produced and sold by the defendant Zile Company prominently uses "Xiao Du" to refer to its product, and Using "xiaoduxiaodu" voice commands to wake up and operate constitutes unfair competition.
Public information shows that as early as March 2018, Baidu had released the "Xiaodu Home 1S" product. It is said that this is a product that integrates the functions of a video phone, a mobile TV, and a smart speaker. It can check the weather, ask for recipes, play videos, tell stories, and read news.
Xiaodu Home 1S
The default wake word set by Baidu for Xiaodu products including “Xiaodu Home 1S” is “ Small degree, small degree."
The wake-up word of Xiaodu Home 1S product is "Xiaodu Xiaodu"
Baidu Online Company claimed that its It is the developer and operator of "Xiaodu" AI electronic products including "Xiaodu Home 1S" (hereinafter referred to as "Xiaodu Smart Speaker"). "xiaoduxiaodu" is used by Baidu Online Company in AI electronic products, with The voice commands for waking up and operating functions have been used for a long time, and the "Xiaodu" product name and "xiaoduxiaodu" voice commands have had a certain impact.
According to Baidu Online Company, it found that Zile Company produces and sells Du Yaya Learning Machine, an AI electronic product that is the same as Xiaodu smart speakers. The company promoted it on its official website "Xiaodu" is prominently used in the content and Du Yaya learning machine to refer to its products; the "xiaoduxiaodu" voice command is used in Du Yaya learning machine to wake up and operate, and is promoted on the official website. The above behavior makes the public confused. Confusion constitutes unfair competition.
Du Yaya LOGO
Du Yaya Bilingual Learning Machine
According to Du Yaya’s official website, Du Yaya’s bilingual learning machine is a family bilingual enlightenment education program developed by Zile Company for Chinese children aged 2-8 years old; in July 2018, Zile Company won the top three early-stage venture awards in China Investment institution Xianfeng Changqing raised tens of millions of yuan in pre-A round financing. At the end of March 2019, it received 55 million yuan in series A financing led by Lanchi Venture Capital and followed by Xianfeng Changqing.
In response to the lawsuit filed by Baidu Online Company, Zile Company argued that it did not prominently use the "Xiaodu" product name and "xiaoduxiaodu" voice commands; its use of " The name "Du Yaya" and the voice command of "Xiao Du Xiaodu" have reasonable basis; the appearance, functions and target users of the products of both parties are completely different, which will not cause confusion among consumers. Jingwei Company stated that it only sold one device to Baidu Online Company as evidence in this case, and promptly deleted the product link after learning about the lawsuit.
02
Zile Company’s use of “xiaoduxiaodu” was malicious
After hearing the Haidian Court It pointed out that after extensive use and promotion by Baidu Online Company, "Xiaodu" as the trade name of its smart speakers is a trade name with certain influence as stipulated in Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law; "xiaoduxiaodu" is the product name that users use in A specific voice command that is indispensable and occurs frequently when using Xiaodu smart speakers. This voice command has established a clear and stable connection with Baidu Online Company and its products, and has high visibility and influence. It should not be criticized. Protection under Article 6, Paragraph 4 of the Fair Competition Law.
The Haidian Court held that, combined with the popularity and influence of "Xiaodu" and "xiaoduxiaodu", Xiaodu smart speakers and Du Yaya learning machines have different functions, audiences, and sales channels. Judging from other aspects that they are similar products, Zile Company’s alleged behavior is subjectively malicious, and objectively it is easy for the relevant public to mistakenly believe that Du Yaya Learning Machine and Baidu Online Company’s Xiaodu Smart Speaker and its related services may exist. Specific connections in product development, technical support, licensing cooperation, etc., lead to confusion.
Accordingly, the court determined that the above-mentioned behavior of Zile Company violated the provisions of Article 6, Paragraph 1 and Paragraph 4 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, and constituted an injustice to Baidu Online Company. Fair competition. Jingwei Company also lacks legal basis for selling Du Yaya learning machine. In the end, the court made the above decision.
Currently, Du Yaya’s official website no longer displays relevant promotional content about the “xiaoduxiaodu” voice command.
It is reported that as the country’s first unfair competition dispute involving voice commands for smart products, the verdict of this case casts light on the malicious confusion and misleading of the public in the artificial intelligence product market. In order to ensure effective regulation, the referee guides market operators to engage in healthy competition through technological innovation and other means, and maintains the order of market competition in the innovation and development process of artificial intelligence-related products.
The verdict of this case is also a positive response to policies such as further strengthening judicial work against unfair competition, promoting the healthy development of intelligence and digitalization, and helping to improve the modernization level of emerging industries.
03
In order to successfully "awaken AI", various companies have made patent and trademark layouts
Currently, there are many products on the market such as smart speakers , smart screens, intelligent learning machines and other AI intelligent interactive products are emerging in endlessly: Baidu’s “Xiaodu”, Xiaomi’s “Xiaomi”, Apple’s “Hi, Siri”, Microsoft’s “XiaoIce”... …has gradually become an invisible “business card” for each company’s AI interaction.
How to provide a good-sounding, easy-to-sound and easy-to-remember voice wake-up command for a product has largely become the key to whether a product can catch consumers’ attention. one.
Every company has noticed this and quickly launched related intellectual property layout.
For example, Huawei has applied for an invention patent for "a voice wake-up method and electronic device". Its technology can be used to ensure that electronic devices are successfully woken up in a wide range of locations. probability.
Baidu has also applied for an invention patent for "voice awakening method, device and computer-readable medium based on lip reading". This patented technology can even be collected based on the device. The user's lip change image is compared with the preset change image. Once matched, the voice interaction function can be awakened, which is magical.
The trademark is another layout focus. Baidu’s “Xiaodu Xiaodu” submitted a trademark application in 2019; Xiaomi’s “Xiao Ai Classmate” began its layout in 2017; Alibaba’s “Tmall Elf” also started applying for trademarks at about the same time.
But it would be inappropriate to use someone else’s trademark as a wake-up word.
Regarding the legal nature of this behavior, some insiders analyzed the meaning of wake-up words in usage scenarios and believed that only by using words that do not have public association meaning Only the use of well-known trademarks as wake-up words constitutes conduct prohibited by competition law.
This view holds that the wake-up word is a technical function symbol, and the trademark is a commercial mark symbol, and the wake-up use behavior is difficult to identify as the use of a trademark. Although, according to the provisions of Article 6 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, the object of confusion must be a mark that "has a certain influence", and using other people's common trademarks as wake-up words is not an act prohibited by the Anti-Unfair Competition Law; however, when a wake-up call is used, When the word is the same as someone else's well-known trademark, the technical and functional advantages will be strengthened by the popularity of the well-known trademark and the influence of one's own products will be enhanced, causing consumers to mistakenly believe that there is a certain commercial cooperation relationship between the two parties. This is naturally an anti-unfair competition behavior that needs to be prohibited. Behavior. In addition, it should be noted that if a well-known trademark has an associative meaning that is well known to the public and the wake-up word makes use of this associative meaning, it should not be deemed to constitute unfair competition. [1]
So, how can designers/producers/sellers of AI voice interactive products avoid similar legal disputes at this stage? Discussions are welcome in the message area~