Apple agrees to pay $25m to settle Siri lawsuit with RPI and Dynamic Advances

Apple has agreed to settle a lawsuit regarding Siri's technology, which violated a patent held by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York but is licensed to a Dallas company, Dynamic Advances. Apple has agreed to pay $24.9m (£17.3m) to settle the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged that Siri's technology was created and patented by Rensselaer and that it predates Apple's launch of Siri, thereby violating the patent. However the lawsuit was not brought forward by Rensselaer, but by Dynamic Advances, which holds the licensing rights to the patent.

According to the Albany Business Review, Apple will make an initial payment of $5m to Dynamic Advances' parent company, Marathon Patent Group. The remaining amount will be paid later, once all the terms and conditions of the settlement have been met. However, there is still some uncertainty regarding the unspecified conditions of the settlement.

Rensselaer is reportedly expected to receive 50% of the settlement from Dynamic Advances, once all the terms have been met, which would allow Apple to receive a patent license for Siri's technology and also provide the tech giant with the assurance that it would not be sued again for the next three years. However, Rensselaer has disagreed to the royalty rate set in the settlement, which in turn has compelled Dynamic Advances to work on resolving the issue "in arbitration".

Apple has a long history of patent infringement cases brought against it. In February, the tech giant was slapped with a $625m patent infringement lawsuit, which charges Apple with violating patented technology in its iMessage and FaceTime products. Apple has since then filed for a mistrial.