華爲成國際專利流氓10大攻擊目標之一

Wireless carrier AT&T (T) was the top target of so-called patent trolls in 2013, having been sued more than 54 times by them in 2013—more than once a week. This year's list of top ten patent troll targets was published today in a Fortune magazine feature story about RPX Corp.(RPXC), which compiled the statistics.

2013年，無線運營商美國電話電報公司AT&T成爲了 “專利流氓”的首要攻擊目標。一年之內，AT&T被這類公司起訴達54次，平均下來每週超過一次。今天，《財富》雜誌在一篇關於專利集成公司RPX Corp的專題報道中公佈了這家公司統計、編撰的2014年“專利流氓十大目標公司”名單。

The article, called "Taking on the Trolls," states: "AT&T is no anomaly. Google (GOOG) was hit with 43 [such] suits last year; Verizon (VZ), 42; Apple (AAPL), 41; Samsung (SSNLF) and Amazon (AMZN), 39 each; Dell and Sony (SNE), 34 each; Huawei, 32; Blackberry (BBRY), 31. Every brand on this unenviable top-ten list was sued by [a patent troll] at least once every 12 days."

這篇標題爲《迎接魔頭的挑戰》（Taking on the Trolls）寫道：“AT&T並不是一個特例。谷歌公司（Google）去年被起訴達43次，威瑞森通信（Verizon）被起訴42次，蘋果公司（Apple）被起訴41次，三星（Samsung）和亞馬遜（Amazon）分別被起訴39次，戴爾（Dell）索尼（Sony）分別被起訴34次，華爲（Huawei）32次，黑莓公司（Blackberry）31次。進入這張榜單並不是一件令人羨慕的事，榜單中的這些公司至少12天就要被（專利流氓）起訴一次。”

"Patent troll" is a pejorative term. A more neutral term, and the one that RPX uses, is "non-practicing entity," or NPE. An NPE is a company that sells no products or services of its own. In their most controversial form, NPEs purchase patents on the open market and then assert them against operating companies, like AT&T and Google, seeking licensing fees and, often, suing to get them.

“專利流氓”這個稱呼帶有鄙夷的意味，而RPX公司所使用了一個更中性的稱謂——“非專利實施主體”，即NPE。NPE公司本身不爲他人提供任何產品或服務。它們最具爭議的做法是，在公開市場上購買各種專利，然後聲稱運營公司（比如AT&T或谷歌）使用了他們的專利，然後要求對方支付授權費。NPE拿到授權費的方式通常是向這些公司發起法律訴訟。

RPX is what's known as a defensive patent aggregator. In exchange for a subscription fee—currently paid by some 168 companies, including Google, Verizon, and Samsung—it attempts to buy up potentially problematic patents on the open market, before NPEs can get their hands on them.

RPX則是所謂的防禦型專利集成公司。RPX向公司收取會員費，然後趕在NPE動手之前，搶先買下公開市場上對成員公司具有潛在隱患的專利。目前RPX共有約168家客戶，其中包括谷歌、威瑞森通信和三星。

According to RPX's statistics—which have been relied upon by academics and government agencies—NPEs filed 3,608 new suits in 2013, up 19% from the 3,042 they filed in 2012, and their suits named 4,843 total defendants, up 13% from the 4,282 sued a year earlier. NPE suits accounted for 67% of all new patent cases filed last year, and 63% of all new patent defendants, according to the figures RPX shared with Fortune.

學術及政府機構均仰仗RPX提供的統計數據。根據它向《財富》雜誌提供的資料，2013年，NPE共提起了3,608起訴訟，比2012年的3,042件增加了19%。這些訴訟指向的被告共有4,843名，比2012年的4,282名增加了13%。NPE提起的案件佔去年全部專利案件的67%，被告人數爲總被告人數的63%。

When one takes into account NPE cases filed in previous years and still unresolved as of December 31, 2013, the top NPE target was Google, which was fighting 72 active cases as of that date. The next nine companies in line after it were AT&T (70), Apple (68), Samsung (63), Sony (58), Amazon (54), Verizon (46), HTC (42), LG Electronics (42), and Dell (41). (The figures for Google include suits against its Motorola Mobility unit, which Google announced last month that it is selling to Lenovo (LNGVY).)

如果按在2013年12月31日前未終結案件的總數來計算，谷歌是NPE的首要目標。截至這一日期，谷歌手頭上還有72件沒有終結的專利官司。其餘九大目標公司依次爲AT&T（70件），蘋果（68件），三星（63件），索尼（58件），亞馬遜（54件），威瑞森通信（46件），宏達國際電子HTC公司（42件），LG電子（LG Electronics，42件）及戴爾（41件）。【谷歌的案件數中包括針對摩托羅拉移動部門（Motorola Mobility）的訴訟，谷歌上月已宣佈計劃將這一部門賣給聯想（Lenovo）。】

NPEs have their defenders, as the Fortune story explains: "These argue that giant tech corporations routinely pilfer innovations dreamed up by independent inventors, and that NPEs simply give these powerless individuals the financial support and litigation muscle they need to vindicate their rights. NPEs therefore serve not only small inventors, the argument continues, but also society at large, by preserving the incentive systems that our Founding Fathers wrote into the Constitution to ensure that the Thomas Edisons of the world would be motivated to provide the rest of us with the maximum possible benefit from their genius.

不過，《財富》文章同時也寫到，也有些人在爲NPE辯護。“這些人的觀點是，大型科技公司經常竊取獨立發明家的創新專利，NPE公司不過是爲這些無力反抗的人們提供了他們所需要的經濟支援和法律手段，以維護他們自身的權利。爲了保證世界上所有像托馬斯?愛迪生一樣的發明家能運用自己的天賦爲社會帶來更多福利，開國元勳們已將發明創新激勵機制寫進了憲法。而通過維護這一機制，NPE公司不只在爲個體發明家服務，更是在造福整個社會。”

"Still, the sheer numbers have many people skeptical. Is AT&T really stealing breakthrough ideas from various Edisons at a rate of more than once a week?"

“然而，僅僅從數字上看，很多人就對這種說法表示懷疑。難道說，AT&T在以超過每週一次的速度竊取愛迪生們的突破性成果嗎？”