iPhone在中國被判侵犯國產手機專利

HONG KONG — In China, cheap smartphones made by relatively obscure companies aping branded designs are ubiquitous.

香港——在中國，相對不知名的公司模仿名牌設計生產的廉價智能手機隨處可見。

Usually it is the major brands that go after the smaller companies for patent infringement. But one of China’s low-cost phone makers recently filed a patent complaint against Apple in the city of Beijing — and for now, it has won.

通常是大品牌追究小公司侵犯專利的責任。但最近，中國一家低價手機生產商在北京對蘋果(Apple)提起專利申訴——目前暫時取得了勝利。

With an appeals process ahead, the ruling is unlikely to have a major impact on Apple. Still, the action spotlights the growing number of cases of municipal patent offices in China backing local companies against larger, international brands.

由於接下來將進入訴訟程序，這項裁決不太可能給蘋果帶來大的影響。但這起案件突顯出在和更大的國際品牌的對抗中，本土公司得到中國地方專利局支持的案例越來越多。

According to a statement from the Beijing Intellectual Property Office, Apple infringed on a design patent used in a phone called the 100C, made by the Chinese phone maker Baili. The statement ordered Apple to stop selling certain older versions of the iPhone within Beijing, though an appeal of such a ruling to the courts in China usually forestalls any sales injunctions.

北京市知識產權局發佈的一則通告稱，蘋果侵犯了中國手機生產商佰利生產的100C手機使用的一項設計專利。通告下令蘋果在北京停售iPhone的某些較老的型號，不過在中國，這類裁決被告上法庭後通常會先停止銷售禁令。

Apple said it had appealed, and a sales clerk at the Apple Store in the Sanlitun area of Beijing said on Friday evening that the store had received no instructions to stop selling the iPhone models and that “it is business as usual.” At the store, a handful of iPhone 6 models stood mostly unused as shoppers tapped on the newer 6s models at a nearby table.

蘋果稱已提起訴訟。週五傍晚，北京市三里屯蘋果店的一名銷售人員稱該店未收到停售相關iPhone產品的指示，表示“照常營業”。店內，幾部iPhone 6基本上都閒置着，顧客在體驗旁邊一張桌子上的新款iPhone 6s。

“IPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE models, are all available for sale today in China,” Apple said in a statement. “We appealed an administrative order from a regional patent tribunal in Beijing last month, and as a result the order has been stayed pending review by the Beijing I.P. Court.”

“IPhone 6和iPhone 6 Plus，以及iPhone 6s、iPhone 6s Plus和iPhone SE今日在華均有售，”蘋果在一則聲明中稱。“我們對北京一個地區性專利機構上月發佈的行政命令提起了訴訟，因此該命令還需接受北京知識產權法院的審查。”

The new headache for Apple comes after increased regulatory pressure and problems in China. Recently, a Chinese company won the right to sell leather goods under the iPhone trademark after years of legal back and forth. And Apple’s movie and book services were shut down in the country shortly after they were introduced, a sign of more serious scrutiny from China’s media regulator.

在這件令人頭疼的事情發生之前，蘋果在中國面臨的監管壓力和問題正在加劇。前不久，一家中國公司贏得了使用iPhone商標銷售皮具製品的權利。在這之前，雙方的法律糾紛持續了數年。蘋果的電影和圖書服務也在引入後不久被關閉。這個跡象表明，中國媒體監管機構的審查變得更加嚴厲。

The Baili patent case pales in comparison to those troubles, though it underscores the day-to-day annoyances that can come with running a tech business in China.

和那些問題相比，佰利專利案微不足道，但它突顯了在中國經營一家科技企業可能會頻頻遇到的麻煩。

The country has had its fair share of cases in which low-level manufacturers take on global brands. In perhaps the most famous, Apple paid $60 million to use the iPad trademark.

在中國，低端生產商挑戰國際品牌的案件相當多。在其中一起或許最爲人所知的案件中，蘋果爲使用iPad商標支付了6000萬美元。

Patent issues like the one Apple has with Baili are common enough that a recent paper in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law examined the topic. While the paper found that China’s patent system was not structured to benefit Chinese companies, it said there had been a number of recent “high-profile patent suits filed by relatively unknown Chinese firms against high-profile foreign tech companies like Apple, Samsung and Dell.”

像蘋果和佰利之間的這種專利問題非常普遍。最近發表在《範德堡大學娛樂科技法期刊》(Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law)上的一篇論文對此進行了研究。儘管文章認爲中國專利制度並非朝向有利於中國公司的方向進行構建，但它表示最近“相對不知名的中國公司對蘋果、三星(Samsung)和戴爾(Dell)等著名外國科技公司提起了大量廣受關注的專利訴訟”。

Once a local intellectual property office in China finds an issue of infringement, companies can decide whether to appeal the matter. At that point, the issue typically is litigated or resolved via a settlement of some kind.

在中國，被地方性的知識產權局認定侵權後，公司可決定是否申訴。如果申訴，往往會將問題訴至法院或是達成某種和解。