How Much Will Siri Lawsuit Cost Apple?

Apple has just agreed to settle a long-running patent lawsuit for almost $25 million. The lawsuit, filed by a company called Dynamic Advances, claimed that Apple had infringed on a patent involving "user interfaces that recognize natural language." The patent describes a method for "providing, through a user interface, a result of [a] search" using natural language queries of a number of connected databases.

The patent had been originally granted as far back as 2007 to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. Rensselaer, an engineering-focused university, then licensed the patent to Dynamic Advances. The high-profile case on Siri highlights the intellectual property minefield facing many tech companies, particularly wealthy ones who are a potentially lucrative target for opportunistic lawsuits. Some entrepreneurs have tried to address the issue by creating large networks connecting patent holders with inventors who may not realize there's already a patent that covers what they're working on. Others have simply adopted a strategy of patenting as many silly, random ideas as they can, just to deny non-practicing entities the opportunity to apply for broad or frivolous patents in hopes of cutting down on the number of abusive lawsuits.