NOT LONG after a jury in the Californian city of San Jose concluded on August 24th that Samsung should pay Apple just over $1 billion in damages for infringing six of the American firm's software and design patents, stills from a year-old sitcom episode, in which a character demonstrates an absurd triangular tablet computer, began recirculating on the internet. The images were being used to poke fun at the jury's ruling that the South Korean firm had copied the shape of Apple's wildly popular iPhone, which (like most) is rectangular with curved corners.
8月24号加州圣何塞的陪审团裁定三星侵犯苹果公司6项软件和设计专利，需付给苹果超过10亿美元的赔偿金。不久后互联网广泛传播一个已经一岁的情景喜剧剧照：一个角色展示一个可笑的三角形平板电脑。这些剧照被用来取笑陪审团的裁决：三星抄袭了苹果公司广受欢迎的常见的长方带圆角形状的iPhone。
The titanic tussle between the two giants, which has led to one of the biggest penalties for patent violations in legal history, is far from over. On August 28th Apple said it wanted Lucy Koh, the judge presiding over the case, to ban the sale in America of eight of Samsung's smartphones. Samsung, which is trying to persuade the judge to overturn the jury's overall verdict, said it would "take all necessary measures" to keep its products on sale. Judge Koh has scheduled a hearing for September 20th to review an existing ban on sales in America of a version of Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet computer. Another hearing is set for December to consider imposing a ban on the phones targeted by Apple.
两大巨头间导致法律史上最大的专利侵权处罚的剧烈争斗远没有结束。8月28号苹果公司表示希望案件主持法官Lucy Koh禁止8款三星智能手机在美国的销售。三星试图说服法官推翻陪审团的整体裁决，表示将采取一切必要措施保证自己产品的销售。Lucy Koh法官已定于9月20号的听证会上复审现有的对三星一版Galaxy Tab平板电脑在美国销售的禁令。另外一场听证会在12月考虑对苹果瞄准的手机实施禁令。
Even if these devices are blocked, the impact on Samsung's bottom line should be modest because a ban will affect older devices, not the firm's snazzy new Galaxy phones. But the case still has big implications for the tech industry, which is facing a tsunami of patent-related lawsuits. It shows how patents covering the look and feel of devices are increasingly being "weaponised" by their holders. It highlights the propensity of juries to award huge damages in intellectual-property disputes. And it will give added ammunition to those who feel that the current system of granting and policing tech patents in America needs to be overhauled.
即使禁售这些设备，对三星的底线并没有太大影响，因为禁令只会影响老款设备，并不影响三星华丽的新款Galaxy手机。但此案对于正面临专利诉讼海啸的科技行业有重大意义。此案显示了设备外观专利正如何越来越被持有者当作武器使用。也突出了在知识产权纠纷中陪审团的巨额赔偿的倾向。也给那些感觉现有批准和监管技术专利的系统需要大修的人补充了弹药。
The legal battle between Samsung and Apple is also intriguing because the archenemies work closely together. Samsung is one of the biggest suppliers of components such as memory chips for Apple's gadgets. But its phones and tablets, which so far have used Google's Android operating system, compete head-on with Apple's iPhones and iPad tablets. The tension between the two firms has grown as competition in the smartphone arena has intensified (see article). Gartner, a research firm, says that more than half of the smartphones shipped worldwide in the second quarter run on Android. Apple's late boss, Steve Jobs, promised "thermonuclear war" against what he saw as Android's systematic copying of Apple features.
三星和苹果的法律战也很有趣的是两个对手还在紧密合作。三星是比如苹果装备内存芯片等组件的的最大供应商之一。但是三星的手机和平板电脑，目前使用google的android系统，与苹果的iphone和ipad形成正面竞争。随着智能手机领域的竞争变激烈，两家公司的紧张也在加剧。研究公司Gartner宣称第二季度过半数的全球推出的智能手机运行在android系统上。苹果已故老板Steve Jobs承诺将向android对苹果系统性的抄袭发起热核战争。
Samsung has been leading the charge of the Androids. To counter it, Apple has launched a bombardment of lawsuits against its rival around the world, claiming that Samsung's devices breach various patents it holds. On the day that the jury in San Jose delivered its ruling, a court in South Korea hearing a similar case said both firms were guilty of patent violations against the other and banned some of their devices from sale in the country. But since America is the world's largest market for consumer electronics, the Californian ruling will have a far greater impact.
三星一直在领导android行业。为了对付三星，苹果在世界各地提出了对他进行诉讼轰炸，声称三星的设备违反了苹果拥有的各项专利。在圣何塞陪审团裁决那天，韩国的一个对类似案件进行听证的法庭表示两家公司都对对方犯了专利侵权罪行，禁止他们的某些设备在韩国销售。但是由于美国是世界最大的消费电子市场，加州的裁决有更巨大的影响。
The jury in San Jose concluded that Samsung had violated several of Apple's utility patents covering things such as bounce-back scrolling, which makes such things as on-screen icons and web pages rebound if swiped too far, and tap-to-zoom functionality, which makes it easy to zero in on, say, an image or a map. It also said the South Korean company had copied the overall look of the iPhone, including the rounded corners of icons, thus breaching several of Apple's design patents. To add insult to injury, the jurors tossed out the South Korean firm's claims that Apple had ripped off some of its own innovations.
圣何塞的陪审团裁决三星侵犯了几项苹果应用专利包括比如：画面跳回滚动，使得比如在滑动太快时屏幕图标和网页可以反弹；点击缩放功能，使得焦点集中在比如图片或地图上变得容易。陪审团还宣称三星抄袭iphone的整体外观，包括圆角图标，因此侵犯了数个苹果设计专利。雪上加霜的是陪审员驳回三星关于苹果曾经偷窃某些三星自己的创新的声明。
Samsung and other firms are likely to tweak the design of their devices to avoid further legal bombshells in America. Some patent lawyers say this is as it should be. "In many ways, the system is working well from an economic viewpoint," says Wil Rao of McAndrews, Held & Malloy, a law firm. But other experts worry that design patents in particular are often drawn too broadly and granted too easily.
三星和其他公司可能他们设备的设计，以避免美国的更多地法律诉讼。有些专利律师说这是理所应当的。"从经济角度看该系统在许多方面都运行良好，"一家律师事务所McAndrews, Held & Malloy的Wil Rao如此说道。但也有专家担心特别是外观设计专利，往往界定太宽泛，授权太容易了。
Whopping penalties imposed on patent infringers are also a cause for concern. Some experts blame these on the increased use of juries in patent cases. According to a study published last year by PWC, a consultancy, juries decided an average of 14% of such cases in America in the 1980s; since 2000 that figure has risen to 56%. The problem, says Brian Love, a law professor at Santa Clara University, is that jurors tend to have a gut reaction against patent violators and therefore often award damages that are vastly higher than the economic harm that has been done. Experienced judges tend to see things in a more nuanced light.
对专利侵权的天价罚金也是引起关注的一个原因。一些专家认为，专利案件的审理越来越多地使用陪审团是其（天价罚金）原因。。根据一家咨询公司PWC去年发布的一个报告，在20世界80年代美国平均14%此类案件由陪审团决定，但从2000年以来这个数字上升到56%。Santa Clara University的法律教授Brian Love认为问题在于陪审员往往对专利侵权者有个直觉反应，因此通常判罚远高于已造成的经济损害的赔偿金。有经验的法官往往以一种更精确细致的见解来看待问题。
A well-known federal judge, Richard Posner, an outspoken critic of America's patent system, has even suggested that the country's Patent and Trademark Office be given the job of hearing patent disputes-and sufficient resources to handle a wider remit. Apple knows Judge Posner all too well. Earlier this year, he dismissed a lawsuit it brought against Motorola Mobility, mocking some of the claims Apple had made about the harm it had suffered. Samsung's lawyers, trying to get the August ruling reversed, will be hoping Judge Koh looks closely at her colleague's findings when battle resumes in San Jose.
著名的联邦法官Richard Posner，一个对美国专利制度的直言不讳的批评者，甚至建议国家的专利和商标局被赋予听证专利纠纷的工作以及处理更广范围工作的足够资源。苹果公司对Posner法官非常了解。今年早些时候，他驳回了一起苹果对摩托罗拉移动的诉讼，拒绝了苹果提出的关于自己受到损害的索赔。三星的律师们，试图扭转8月的裁决，希望在圣何塞法院听证时Koh法官能审视一下她的同僚的判决。