经济学人下载:知识产权,发明之战

Making things even more troublesome is that as lawsuits became particuarly lucrative some companies entered the fray to feed off them. Non-practicing entities (NPEs), which have intellectual property but no actual products, include such august bodies as the Harvard Medical School. But some NPEs are derided as “trolls” because their sole purpose seems to be to exploit the legal system by demanding licensing fees from companies, sometimes for questionable patents. Over the past 15 years, the median award to NPEs of damages for patent infringement has doubled while that for other firms has declined (see chart).

更麻烦的是诉讼特别有利可图，一些公司因此加入到混战当中，以此为业。非执业实体机构有知识产权，但是没有实际产品，哈佛医学院这类众相追捧的机构就属此列。但是有些非职业实体机构（Non-practicing Entities）因为其唯一目的就是利用法律体系，从使用公司收取专利费（有些专利颇受质疑），而被贬称为“诱饵公司”。过去15年里，裁决非职业实体机构侵权赔偿损失的平均赔偿数额增加一倍，而对其他公司的裁决减少（见图）。

Court rulings in America have begun to clip the trolls’ beards by making it harder to win injunctions and by strengthening the criteria for whether an invention is truly “non-obvious”. Microsoft has seen the number of suits filed in the famously plaintiff-friendly district court of Eastern Texas fall from 17 in 2007 to just two so far this year, says Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel. However, as big companies have improved their defences, the trolls have changed their tactics and are now going after start-ups.

美国法院裁决开始通过使“诱饵公司”更难获得禁令并就一项发明是否真的“非人所共知（non-obvious）”强化标准，来精简“诱饵公司”。在以偏向于原告而出名的德克萨斯州东部的地方法院，对微软提起的诉讼从2007年的17件降至今年的仅2件，微软法律总顾问布拉德·史密斯（Brad Smith）说。但是，随着大公司胜诉增加，“诱饵公司”也一改策略，开始追逐初创公司。

New legislation could change things. David Kappos, director of America’s patent office, says the America Invents Act could amount to “the most sweeping reforms to the US patent system in 175 years.” It is expected to be passed this autumn, Barack Obama has indicated that he will sign it, and big IT and drug companies support it. But many entrepreneurs and venture capitalists do not, arguing that it does not fix any of the system’s big problems and risks creating new ones.

新法案有望扭转乾坤。美国专利局局长大卫·卡波斯（David Kappos）说，美国发明法（the America Invent Act）有望“彻底改变美国175年历史的专利体系。”该方案预计会在今年秋季通过，巴拉克·奥巴马已表示他会签署通过该方案，而且大型IT公司和只要企业也对该法案给予支持。但是许多企业家和风险投资人却对此不屑一顾，认为这不会解决这一体系的大问题，而有制造新问题的风险。