Amazon Beats University’s Patent Lawsuit Over Alexa Voice Tech

Amazon.com Inc. escaped Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s lawsuit seeking infringement royalties for the tech giant’s Alexa voice assistant, as a federal judge in New York voided the school’s asserted patent.

Judge Brenda K. Sannes granted Amazon’s motion for summary judgment that US Patent No. 7,177,798, which covers a system that uses a limited dictionary to understand and respond to spoken or written language, is invalid. She denied RPI’s competing request for summary judgment and denied the remaining claims in the case as moot, according to an opinion issued Monday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York. ...