A judge who was presiding over a patent lawsuit that involved Apple's Siri has stepped down from the case as he has an "interest" in the technology giant, according to tomshardware.com.

New York District Court Judge Gary Sharpe has turned away from the case due to claiming "interest" in Apple. Consequently, he's legally prevented from being qualified to judge the Siri-related lawsuit. While it's unclear what exactly his interest may be related to, it's likely to involve stock/shares.

The lawsuit itself was filed by Dynamic Advances, who alleges that Apple's virtual assistant Siri infringes upon its licensed voice recognition patent titled '798. Dynamic Advances, however, didn't register the patent, but exclusively licensed it from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

"Apple has infringed and continues to infringe one or more claims of the '798 Patent by processing natural-language inputs in the United States. For example, Apple's Siri personal assistant includes technology claimed in the '798 Patent," read a court letter.

Replacing Sharpe will be district judge David Hurd over the Dynamic Advances lawsuit.