苹果与HTC和解，不代表他会对Android阵营手软

产业专家指出，苹果(Apple)与台湾手机大厂宏达电(HTC)达成智能手机专利授权协议，并不代表苹果已经打算终止与其它更大的 Android 阵营竞争对手包括Google、摩托罗拉(Motorola)与三星(Samsung)之间的纷争。 苹果在美国时间11月10日宣布与HTC达成全球和解协议，内容包括双方所有专利诉讼均撤销，并签订为期十年之专利授权契约，但合约内容不公开。苹果是在2010年3月控告HTC侵犯专利权，点燃双方手机专利战火；你来我往的诉讼与反诉案件超过100件。 而苹果与HTC之间的协议，标志着苹果的法律策略正由诉讼朝向授权发展；市场观察家指出，苹果首席执行官库克(Tim Cook)已经公开表示对诉讼案的厌恶，因此这样的发展也是有迹可循的。苹果已故前首席执行官乔布斯(Steve Jobs)曾声称 Android 阵营是“剽窃iPhone”，并宣示将针对该阵营“发动核战”，看来该公司的策略已经有所转变。 根 据一些分析报告估计，苹果将透过授权协议对HTC每支手机收取7美元的费用，一年总收入可达2.8亿美元。有两位在过去两年半密切观察苹果专利战的产业专家猜测，苹果也会针对其它竞争对手提出类似的授权协议；他们并指出，HTC的市占率最近显著下滑，而且对于取得授权已经采取较开放态度，也与微软 (Microsoft)类似的协议。 “我认为苹果与HTC和解案，是智能手机市场专利战争走向平息的好的开始，但仅仅是第一步而已…这种形式的和解最终有可能完全取代诉讼。”美国史丹佛大学法学院(Stanford Law School)教授Mark Lemley表示。 “HTC算是一家比较小的手机厂商，而且也有控告苹果违反专利权；”Lemley在接受EETimes美国版的电子邮件采访时表示：“因此苹果有更多的理由继续紧 追三星与摩托罗拉不放。”在今年8月，苹果才赢了一场大官司──美国加州圣荷西(San Jose)法院陪审团裁定三星一系列手机侵犯了苹果的设计与功能专利，须赔偿10.5亿美元给苹果。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：苹果与HTC协议存在的意义

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{pagination} “如果在不久的将来，苹果与Android阵营制造商达成更多授权协议，到那时候──也只有在那时候，才能安全的假设苹果比乔布斯时期更朝向采取授权导向策略。”一位密切观察手机专利战的部落客Florian Mueller表示。 “HTC随着时间推移，对苹果的威胁越来越小，这特别激励苹果结束与该公司之间基本上只是使注意力分散的争端。”Mueller同样在接受EETimes美国版电子邮件采访时表示。 Google在2011年8月以125亿美元收购摩托罗拉，是前者史上规模最大的一宗并购案，主要是看中后者持有的1万7,000项专利；而苹果与HTC的协议，意味着并购摩托罗拉并没有让Google取得保护其它Android阵营厂商的足够火力。 Mueller在一篇部落格文章中写道：“如果HTC相信Google能藉由摩托罗拉专利解决Android的专利问题，就不会单独与苹果签订合约，而会等待Google所率领的整个Android阵营与苹果达成全球性的专利和解。” 有业界消息指出，苹果与Google的高层已经针对手机专利诉讼问题进行协商；一篇《时代杂志(Time Magazine)》表示：“苹果与HTC的协议显然是让苹果与Google之间代理战争(proxy-war)等级下降，也为苹果的授权交易设定了基准线。” 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Judith Cheng 参考英文原文：Apple, HTC patent deal may not open Android door，by Rick Merritt

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{pagination} Apple, HTC patent deal may not open Android door Rick Merritt SAN JOSE, Calif. – Apple's deal to license smartphpone patents to Taiwan's HTC does not necessarily indicate it is ready to end disputes with larger Android rivals Google, Motorola and Samsung, according to two experts. Apple announced on Nov. 10 it reached “a global settlement that includes the dismissal of all current lawsuits and a ten-year license agreement” with HTC, although it declined to provide details of the deal. Apple sued HTC for patent infringement on March 2, 2010, firing the first shot in a mobile patent war that eventually grew to more than 100 lawsuits and countersuits. The deal marks a shift in Apple’s legal strategy toward licensing rather than litigation. Observers said it bears the thumbprint of Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has expressed publicly his aversion to lawsuits. The move marks a policy shift from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs who vowed to “go thermonuclear” against Android backers he claimed “ripped off the iPhone.” Reports estimate Apple could be charging HTC about $7 per handset and could net as much as $280 million annually from the deal. But two experts who closely follow the two-and-a-half year mobile patent wars remain skeptical Apple will strike similar licensing deals with larger rivals. They note HTC has declined significantly in market share recently and has been more open to licensing, agreeing to a similar deal with Microsoft. “I think the settlement is a good first step towards winding down the smartphone wars, but it is only a first step…that settlement may replace litigation eventually,” said Mark Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School. “HTC is a small player, and it had its own patent suits against Apple,” said Lemley in an email exchange. “So Apple has more reason to keep going after Samsung and Motorola than HTC,” he added. Indeed, Apple won a landmark $1.05 billion in August when a San Jose jury decided a wide array of Samsung handsets infringed Apple’s design and utility patents. "If Apple strikes more license deals with Android device makers in the near future, then--and only then--it will be safe to assume that Apple is more licensing-oriented than it was under Jobs," said Florian Mueller, a blogger who closely follows the mobile patent fights. "HTC has over time become less and less of a threat to Apple, so there was a particularly strong incentive for Apple to do away with what was basically a distraction," Mueller said in an email exchange. Google bought Motorola in August 2011 for $12.5 billion, its biggest acquisition ever, largely for its cache of 17,000 patents. The Apple/HTC deal suggests the merger did not yield Google enough ammunition to protect OEM users of Android. “If HTC had believed that Google could solve Android's patent problems with Motorola's patents, it wouldn't have done a separate deal with Apple but would have waited for a global settlement between Apple and the entire Google-led Android ecosystem,” Mueller wrote in his blog. Several reports said chief executives of Apple and Google have been in talks about mobile patent litigation. “This pact is unambiguously a de-escalation of Apple’s proxy-war against Google…setting a baseline for Apple licensing deals,” according to a report in Time Magazine.