经济学人下载:创智财富,专利之争更猛烈更烧钱

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.

新的立法或将改变现状。美国专利办公室的主管大卫卡珀斯说：“美国发明法案将成为175年来对美国专利系统最彻底的改革。”该法案或将在今年秋天颁布——巴拉克．奥巴马已经表示他将签署法案，此为大的IT和医药企业均支持这一法案。但是许多企业主和风险投资却不同意，争论的焦点在于这不适合所有的系统的大问题并且创造了新的风险。

The most contentious point is a change to determine who is the rightful inventor. Instead of being the “first to invent”, the successful applicant would be the “first to file”, the standard used worldwide. Harmonising America’s rules with those in other countries would be a step towards greater co-operation and efficiency in patent examinations globally. Big companies like the proposal because it gives them more legal certainty that someone will not appear claiming they came up with the idea first. But inventors like Steve Perlman, the founder of WebTV and other firms, argue that it forces companies to file for patents before their inventions are fully developed. That, says Mr Perlman, would lead to yet more incremental improvements rather than big innovative steps and put a toll on America’s competitiveness.

最有争议的地方在于决定谁是真正的发明者的改变。与“发明在先”相反，成功申请的标准将采用世界广泛使用的“申请在先”。美国的法则与其它国家的趋同是全球范围内共同合作和有效审查专利的重要步骤。大企业喜欢这个提案因为该法案赋予他们更多的法律的确定性。此处的确定性就是某人不再出庭作证其第一个想出了这个方案。但是发明者——比如网络电视和其它企业的创始人史蒂文珀尔曼——认为法案将迫使企业在他们的发明还没得到完整发展之前就开始申请专利。珀尔曼先生认为那还将引起小修小补式的而不是巨大革新的跨越，并且为美国竞争力敲响了丧钟。

For the moment, though, companies are amassing ever larger arsenals of patents. Google, for one, was hit by eight lawsuits in April alone—more than in the first five years of its 13-year existence, says Mr Walker. “See how far we have strayed from the notion of innovation, that we need to acquire patents to fend off potential suits,” he says of the firm’s overall strategy. “That money could have been spent on engineers, to much more productive use.”

目前，企业正在积累专利的军火库。沃克先生说，其中一个例子是仅4月谷歌就被8个官司缠身——大大超过有13年历史的谷歌最早五年的总和。“看看我们在发明这个概念的迷途中走了多远。之所以迷途是我们需要获取专利的目的是为了抵御潜在法律诉讼，”他就企业的全局策略谈论，“钱就花在刀刃上，集中于生产性的花费。”