经济学人下载:创智财富,专利之争更猛烈更烧钱

Intellectual property知识产权

Inventive warfare创智财富

Battles over patents are becoming fiercer and more expensive
专利之争更猛烈，更烧钱

Aug 20th 2011 | from the print edition

THIS deal is all about patents. That was the near universal view of Google’s announcement this week that it was taking over Motorola Mobility, a maker of handsets and other devices, for a colossal $12.5 billion. Indeed, the purchase will provide Google with an awful lot of patents: around 17,000 of them issued and another 7,500 pending. They should help Google in its efforts to get more smartphones and other mobile devices running on its Android operating system. But it could also make the battles over patents nastier and more costly.

这笔交易也是彻头彻尾关于专利的。谷歌本周宣布以高达125亿美元收购手机及相关配件的制造商摩托罗拉移动部门的消息引起了全球关注。此外，此次交易将提供给谷歌大量的专利：大约17，000个已经获得专利权，另外有7，500个正在申请中。这将有助于谷歌拓展其基业以使更多地智能手机和其它移动终端使用安卓操作系统。但这也会使得专利之争更卑劣更烧钱。

A scramble for patents had already begun. In December four companies, including Microsoft and Apple, paid $450m for around 880 patents and applications owned by Novell, an ailing software firm. In July those two and four others, including Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, spent $4.5 billion on 6,000 patents owned by Nortel, a bankrupt Canadian telecoms-equipment maker. Before its latest deal, Google bought 1,000 patents from IBM. Firms are also suing each other. Apple claims its technology has been copied by Samsung and Motorola in their Android phones. Oracle is suing Google for up to $6 billion, claiming that Android infringes its patents. Microsoft is suing Motorola over Android too. Nokia recently settled a similar quarrel with Apple.

对专利权的争夺已经开始了。12月，包括微软和苹果在内的四家企业为了大约880项专利向专利所用者——一家面临窘境的软件企业——诺勒支付了4.5亿美元。7月，前述四家企业中的两家和另外四家企业——包括捷讯移动和黑莓手机制造商——为了6000项专利向一个破产的加拿大电信设备供应商北电网络支费了450亿美元。在最新的一笔交易中，谷歌从国际商业机器公司购买了1000项专利。企业间也互相控诉。苹果声称其技术被三星和摩托罗拉抄袭在其各自的安卓手机内。甲骨文诉谷歌侵害了其专利，并要求索赔高达60亿美元。微软也以安卓诉摩托罗拉。最近，诺基亚和苹果也开始了专利权的纷争。