订阅

多平台阅读

微信订阅

杂志

申请纸刊赠阅

订阅每日电邮

移动应用

专栏 - 苹果2_0

乔布斯的专利核大战胜算几何?

Philip Elmer-DeWitt 2012年07月04日

苹果(Apple)公司内部流传着一个老笑话,那就是史蒂夫·乔布斯周围是一片“现实扭曲力场”:你离他太近的话,就会相信他所说的话。苹果的数百万用户中已经有不少成了该公司的“信徒”,而很多苹果投资者也赚得盆满钵满。不过,Elmer-DeWitt认为,在报道苹果公司时有点怀疑精神不是坏事。听他的应该没错。要知道,他自从1982年就开始报道苹果、观察史蒂夫·乔布斯经营该公司。
乔布斯生前曾经誓言要发起专利核打击,彻底摧毁安卓系统。如今,苹果专利诉讼一周两胜。尽管这两场胜利都只是针对即将过时的设备。但有了本周的两项禁令,苹果或许会要求对更新的产品实行临时禁令。

    上周五,美国地方法院法官露西•科下达了两项针对三星(Samsung)Galaxy Nexus的临时禁令,对此谷歌(Google)没有发表任何评论。Galaxy Nexus触摸屏智能手机的软件和硬件由谷歌和三星的工程师联合开发。

    这是一周之内针对三星安卓系统的第二项禁令,也是第一项直接冲击谷歌品牌产品的禁令。禁令下达前八个月,谷歌与三星在香港召开的“冰激凌三明治”活动上,推出了Galaxy Nexus。而就在三天前,在旧金山召开的“果冻豆”开发者大会上,谷歌向与会者发放了6,000部Galaxy Nexus手机。

    谷歌非常明智地选择了沉默,但它的支持者们却难掩心中的愤怒。科技网站BetaNews的乔•威尔考克斯撰写了一篇名长文,题目是《用禁令阻止Galaxy Nexus销售是苹果的耻辱》(Apple's injunction stopping Galaxy Nexus sales is shameful),对禁令愤怒吐槽,像极了福克斯新闻频道(Fox News)评论员批评高等法院对奥巴马医改计划的判决时的腔调。不过乔•威尔考克斯的支持者大有人在,比如BetaNews另外一位记者弥海塔•班布里克就认为,苹果是“获胜的输家”。

    现在,iOS与安卓双方阵营群情激昂。沃尔特•艾萨克森在《乔布斯传》(Steve Jobs)中提到,苹果公司对安卓手机制造商发起第一次专利侵权诉讼那天,乔布斯异常愤怒。他对艾萨克森说,谷歌“就是个盗窃犯”,并声称要对安卓系统发动“核打击”。

    上周,理查德•波斯纳法官“带有偏见地”驳回了苹果对另一家安卓手机制造商摩托罗拉(Motorola)的起诉,看起来乔布斯的威胁似乎即将落空。然而,正如专利博客FOSS Patents的弗洛里安•穆勒所说,回顾一下就会发现,波斯纳法官的判决对苹果更加有利。波斯纳法官的判决是,不会下达对所谓“FRAND”(公平合理非歧视原则——译注)专利的临时禁令,而这将使三星和摩托罗拉移动公司(目前已被谷歌收购)原本打算针对苹果部署的法律武器永久失效。

    苹果公司能否达成乔布斯的遗命,夺取专利战的胜利?由于漫长的诉讼过程,目前苹果取得的胜利都只是针对即将过时的设备。但有了本周的两项禁令,苹果或许会要求对更新的产品实行临时禁令,比如三星热卖的Galaxy S III智能手机,再比如谷歌本周刚刚发布的Nexus 7平板电脑。

    译者:刘进龙/汪皓

    Google (GOOG) made no public comment Friday after Judge Lucy Koh granted Apple (AAPL) a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus -- a touchscreen cellphone whose hardware and software were jointly developed by Google and Samsung engineers.

    It was the second ban on an Android-based Samsung device in a week (seehere), and the first to strike directly at a Google-branded product. It came eight months after the Galaxy Nexus was unveiled at Google and Samsung's "Ice Cream Sandwich" event in Hong Kong and three days after Google gave6,000 copies of the phone to attendees at its "Jelly Bean" developers conference in San Francisco.

    Google wisely held its tongue, but its supporters were not so reticent. Sounding like a Fox News commentator after the Supreme Court's Obamacare ruling, BetaNews' Joe Wilcox let loose an angry tirade entitled Apple's injunction stopping Galaxy Nexus sales is shameful, an opinion echoed by a second BetaNews writer, Mihaita Bamburic, who declared Apple "a loser for winning."

    Emotions are running high on both sides of the iOS/Android divide. Walter Isaacson reported in his Steve Jobs biography that Jobs was as angry as he'd ever seen him the day Apple filed its first patent infringement suit against an Android phone manufacturer. Google has "f***ing ripped off the iPhone," Jobs told Isaacson, promising to go "thermonuclear" to destroy Android.

    Last week, when Judge Richard Posner dismissed "with prejudice" Apple's suit against Motorola over yet another Android phone, it looked as if Jobs' threats might have been empty. In retrospect, as FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller points out, Posners' decision was better for Apple than for Google. His ruling that preliminary injunctions can't be granted on so-called FRAND patents may have permanently disarmed the legal weapons both Samsung and Motorola Mobility (now part of Google) had hoped to deploy against Apple's patent arsenal.

    Could Jobs actually win the war he's waging from the grave? Given how slowly the wheels of justice grind, the legal victories granted Apple so far have been against devices whose shelf life had nearly expired. But armed with this week's decisions, Apple may be tempted to request preliminary injunctions against newer products, such as Samsung's hot-selling Galaxy S III smartphone or the Nexus 7 tablet that Google unveiled this week.

我来点评

  最新文章

最新文章:

中国煤业大迁徙

500强情报中心

财富专栏