US 2,012,016,678 · Filed 2011-01-10

Apple's Patent for Siri: Talking to Your Phone Like a Real Person

Imagine a computer program that understands what you're saying in plain English and actually does stuff for you—like checking the weather, sending a text, or finding a restaurant. This patent covers the foundational idea: a smart assistant that listens, understands your intent, and can reach out to other apps and services to get answers or complete tasks.

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The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a system that engages users through natural language conversation—meaning you talk to it normally, not in robot code—and automatically connects to outside services to fetch information or perform actions. What's protected here is the integrated architecture that lets the assistant understand your request, figure out what you need, and then coordinate with external tools to deliver results, all within a single conversational flow.

Why it matters

This patent represents Apple's foundational intellectual property for voice assistants in consumer electronics. Filed in 2011, it captures the core mechanics of how modern smart assistants work: understanding human speech, interpreting intent, and orchestrating multiple services behind the scenes. The technology became central to Siri and Apple's broader ecosystem strategy, allowing the company to protect its approach to making phones feel conversational rather than mechanical.

Real-world use

Every time you ask Siri to 'remind me to call Mom at 3pm' or 'what's the weather tomorrow,' you're using the exact kind of natural language understanding and service integration this patent describes.

Original USPTO abstract

An intelligent automated assistant system engages with the user in an integrated, conversational manner using natural language dialog, and invokes external services when appropriate to obtain information or perform various actions. The system can be implemented using any of a number of different platforms, such as the web, email, smartphone, and the like, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, the system is based on sets of interrelated domains and tasks, and employs additional functionally powered by external services with which the system can interact.

Patent details

Publication number: US 2,012,016,678
Filing date: 2011-01-10
Grant date: Application — not yet granted
Assignee: Apple Inc.
Inventor(s): GRUBER THOMAS ROBERT, CHEYER ADAM JOHN, KITTLAUS DAG, GUZZONI DIDIER RENE, BRIGHAM CHRISTOPHER DEAN, GIULI RICHARD DONALD, BASTEA-FORTE MARCELLO, SADDLER HARRY JOSEPH
CPC class: G06F3/167

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