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訴訟判斷不及格.競爭環境必險惡
我們一再指出的,就是宏達電這家公司,有信仰虔誠的老闆、有認真打拼的團隊,但是完全沒有及格的訴訟判斷能力。
不該打的訴訟堅持要打,不該告的案子去告。這種公司,產品再好,股票是否值得買,就應該再作考慮。因為,這樣的公司很容易就能把明明仍然占有優勢的地位拱手讓人;也會在不經意之間就踢到鐵板,跌進萬丈深淵。
公司到底應該怎樣作「訴訟判斷」,這門課法律系沒教、EMBA沒教。其實,哪有企業一旦占有相當的地位,還不會面對訴訟風險的?你不去告人,也會有人要來告你,這是天經地義的事。但來告你的人,是雜碎?是鬼扯?是毫無依據?還是個言有所本的競爭對手?一旦變成被告,是該求和?邊打邊談?找關係去敲出一個勉強可以接受的DEAL?還是硬到底,拼到至死方休?這就是我們所講的訴訟判斷。
在爭端初起的時候,沒有人敢打包票說結果會怎樣。律師依法律之規定,更不能包贏;要問他們勝算是10%還是90%,也一點意義都沒有。訴訟判斷,是藏在遠高過這些技術性細節的哲理之內,我們將在以後的文章中,花比較多的篇幅為讀者作整理。
htc最可惜的,就是在大腦功能區裡少了這一塊。因此,只要糾紛一來,總是杵在自己早該脫離的戰場負隅頑抗。現在ITC終判htc敗訴,又讓我們想起陳文琦帶VIA硬打Intel的陳年舊事…
Apple Wins Round Against Android
[DECEMBER 19, 2011, Wall Street Journal]
Apple Inc. was handed a legal victory that is bad news for rival Google Inc., as a U.S. trade agency ruled that some HTC Corp. smartphones that use the Internet company’s Android software infringe an Apple patent.
The U.S. International Trade Commission on Monday ordered HTC by April to stop importing handsets that infringe the patent. The Taiwanese company said it would remove the feature found to violate Apple’s patent, a move that should avoid disruption to its U.S. business.
Apple is tangling over intellectual property with multiple competitors around the world, in large part seeking to hobble rivals using Android-powered smartphones from taking a larger share of the business. The long-awaited ruling by the ITC is one of the first high-profile decisions in Apple’s home market.
The ITC’s decision narrowed an earlier finding that HTC was infringing multiple claims of two separate patents. Instead, it found that some HTC smartphones using Android violated only two claims of one Apple patent related to extracting information such as phone numbers from emails and doing something with the information, such as making a phone call. That invention, sometimes described as covering “data tapping,” allows users to grab data embedded in an unstructured form, like an address, and use it in another phone application, such as mapping.
It wasn’t clear how many HTC smartphones use the infringing technology. Grace Lei, the company’s general counsel, said in a statement that the ruling involved a “small” user-interface feature and “HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.”
An Apple spokeswoman said “competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
The decision comes as HTC and Apple are tussling in a number of courts over their shares of the growing smartphone market. Apple’s taking its fight to other Android handset makers, too, many of which are retaliating.
Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. have numerous cases against each other with the ITC seeking to bar the other from selling their products.
A spokesman for Google declined to comment.
Apple leads the market in the U.S., with 28.6% of the country’s consumer smartphone subscribers in the three-month period ending in October, ahead of HTC, which had just over 20%, according to Nielsen. But Android devices, which often use email, maps and other features from Apple rival Google, pose a growing threat to the Cupertino, Calif., company and together have a greater share of the U.S. smartphone software market than the iPhone.
Despite the narrowing of the patent claims, some experts said the ITC decision was an important victory for Apple.
Alexander Poltorak, chairman and CEO of Suffern, N.Y.-based General Patent Corp., which advise companies on their patent strategies, says the decision “validates that the Android operating system has implemented a number of inventions from Apple.” He predicted that the decision would “go a long way” in convincing HTC to consider a global patent settlement with Apple.
An HTC spokeswoman declined additional comment.
Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com