This case is the country’s first unfair competition dispute over voice commands for smart products.

Author | Bruce

Editor | Zhao Ling

"Xiaodu Xiaodu, how will the weather be tomorrow?"

"Xiaodu Xiaodu, I want to listen to "Mojito"..."

A voice interaction beginning with a specific "wake word" seems to be the key to a mysterious AI door. 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 Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Baidu Online Company") due to the "wake-up word" of the "crash". 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, compensate for economic losses and reasonable Expenditure is NT$3 million.

Recently, the Beijing Haidian District People’s Court (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 compensate Baidu Online Company for 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, as the plaintiff in the case, believes that the Du Yaya learning machine produced and sold by the defendant Zile Company prominently uses "Xiaodu" to refer to its products, and uses the "xiaoduxiaodu" voice command to The act of awakening and manipulation 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 “Xiaodu Xiaodu”.

The wake-up word of Xiaodu Home 1S products is "Xiaodu Xiaodu"

Baidu Online Company claimed that it includes "Xiaodu Home 1S" (hereinafter referred to as "Xiaodu"). Developer and operator of "Xiaodu" AI electronic products including "Smart Speaker"), "xiaoduxiaodu" is a voice command used by Baidu Online Company in AI electronic products with wake-up and operation functions. After long-term use, "xiaoduxiaodu" "Du" product name and "xiaoduxiaodu" voice command have already 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 Speaker. The company promoted the content and Du Yaya Learning Machine on its official website "Xiaodu" is prominently used to refer to its products; the "xiaoduxiaodu" voice command is used to wake up and operate the Du Yaya learning machine, and is promoted on the official website. The above behavior confuses the public and constitutes unfair competition.

Du Yaya LOGO

Du Yaya bilingual learning machine

According to Du Yaya’s official website, Du Yaya bilingual learning machine is a product of Zile Company for China A family bilingual enlightenment education program developed for children aged 2-8 years old; in July 2018, Zile Company received tens of millions of yuan in pre-A round financing from Xianfeng Changqing, one of the top three early-stage venture capital institutions in China. At the end of March 2019, Received a RMB 55 million 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; it used the name "Du Yaya" and " The voice command "Xiaodu Xiaodu" has a reasonable basis; the appearance, functions, and target users of the products of both parties are completely different, and 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 trial, the Haidian Court pointed out that after extensive use and promotion by Baidu Online Company, “Xiaodu” As the trade name of its smart speakers, it is a trade name with certain influence as stipulated in Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law; "xiaoduxiaodu" is a specific product that is indispensable and frequently appears when users use Xiaodu smart speakers. Voice commands, which have established a clear and stable connection with Baidu Online Company and its products, and have high visibility and influence, should be protected by Article 6, Item 4 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.

The Haidian Court held that, based on the popularity and influence of "Xiaodu" and "xiaoduxiaodu", Xiaodu smart speakers and Du Yaya learning machines are similar products in terms of functions, audiences, sales channels, etc. , Zile Company’s alleged behavior is subjectively malicious, and objectively it is easy for the relevant public to misunderstand that Du Yaya Learning Machine and Baidu Online Company’s Xiaodu smart speakers and related services may have product research and development, technical support, and authorization specific connections in areas such as collaboration, leading 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 unfair competition for Baidu Online Company. 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 has effectively regulated the behavior of maliciously confusing and misleading the public in the artificial intelligence product market. Through the guidance of the referee Market operators should engage in healthy competition through technological innovation and other means to maintain 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 "awaken AI" smoothly, various companies have made patent and trademark layouts

Currently, there are many products on the market such as smart speakers, smart screens, and smart learning machines. AI intelligent interactive products such as Baidu's "Xiaodu", Xiaomi's "Xiao Ai", Apple's "Hi, Siri", Microsoft's "XiaoIce"... have gradually become popular products of various companies. An invisible “business card” for enterprise 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 one of the keys to whether a product can catch consumers’ attention.

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 the probability of successful wake-up of electronic devices in a wide range of locations.

Baidu has also applied for an invention patent for "speech awakening method, device and computer-readable medium based on lip reading". This patented technology can even follow the user's lip changing images collected by the device. The preset changed images are compared and once matched, the voice interaction function can be awakened, which is magical.

Logo 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 as a starting point, and believed that only the use of well-known trademarks with no public association significance as wake-up words This 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 use of wake-up words is difficult to be recognized as trademark use. 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, manufacturers and sellers of AI voice interactive products avoid similar legal disputes at this stage? Discussions are welcome in the message area~