Representatives of US electronics giant Apple Inc appeared in a Shanghai court on Tuesday for an intellectual property rights case involving the software for Siri, its voice-activated digital assistant.

Siri responds to a user's commands through voice recognition software.

Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology Co, the developer of a voice technology called Xiao i Robot, alleged that Apple's Siri had infringed the patent they hold relating to "a type of instant messaging chat robot system".