这是一次典型的以牙还牙：上周五，三星（Samsung）宣布已在韩国、日本和德国对苹果（Apple）提起专利侵权诉讼。

    一周前，苹果在加州联邦法院起诉三星，称其侵犯了自己一系列知识产权。苹果在诉状中表示，三星的银河（Galaxy）智能手机和平板电脑一直在全盘照抄iPhone和iPad的外观、触感，甚至连包装也不放过。

    从好几个层面来看，这场法庭大战颇为讽刺。

    苹果的真正目标是谷歌（Google），后者的Android操作系统很大程度上都是基于苹果的软件开发工作。但苹果并未选择与谷歌直接交锋，而是将矛头对准部分Android手机制造商。这些厂商的产品在一些市场已经超过iPhone，而谷歌自己并未从Android销售中获利。

    《华尔街日报》（Wall Street Journal）报道，三星董事长李健熙（Lee Kun-hee）上周四向记者表示：“[苹果]这是枪打出头鸟。”

    不过，三星和苹果仍在继续进行大量商业合作。

    苹果首席运营官蒂姆•库克表示，去年，苹果从三星采购了价值近60亿美元的零部件，是三星最大的一个客户。但对于银河产品，库克周三向分析师表示，“我们觉得三星的移动通信部门已经越界，关于此事我们已花了不少时间，现在我们决定对簿公堂。”

    三星并未直接反驳苹果的诉讼，而是选择从其它方面回击。三星发言人表示，苹果侵犯了三星在移动通信技术领域的一系列专利。具体如下：

    • 数据传送优化技术

    • 数据传送中的节电技术

    • 减少数据传送错误的3G技术

    • 一种手机与PC机之间的网络共享方法

    applepatent的帕特里克•伊格表示，上周五三星的股价下跌了2.6%，股东价值大约缩水36亿美元。伊格上周五在博客中表示：“我认为三星的内存、固态硬盘（SSD）、显示器和处理器部门并不愿意看到这次诉讼升级。”

    译者：项航

    In a classic legal tit-for-tat, Samsung announced Friday that it had filed patent infringement suits against Apple (AAPL) in South Korea, Japan and Germany.

    A week earlier it had been sued by Apple in a California federal court for violating a broad range of Apple's intellectual property rights. According to that suit, Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and tablets have been "slavishly" copying the look, feel and even the packaging of the iPhone and iPad.

    The legal battle is ironic on several levels.

    Apple's beef is really with Google (GOOG), which makes the Android operating system that owes so much to Apple's software development work. But rather than pursue Google, which earns no money from the sale of Android, Apple has been pursuing manufacturers of the Android phones that have, in some markets, overtaken the iPhone.

    "When a nail sticks out, [people] try to pound it down," Samsung's chairman Lee Kun-hee told reporters Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal.

    Meanwhile, Samsung and Apple continue to do a lot of business together.

    Apple bought nearly $6 billion worth of Samsung components last year, and according to COO Tim Cook, it is Samsung's single largest customer. But with the Galaxy products, he told analysts on Wednesday, "we felt the mobile communication division of Samsung had crossed the line, and after trying for some time to work the issue, we decided we needed to rely on the courts."

    Rather than answer Apple's charges directly, Samsung's suits change the subject. According to a company spokesman they allege that Apple infringed on a series of Samsung patents covering mobile communications technology. Specifically:

    • Technology to optimize data transmission

    • Techniques for reducing power usage during data transmission

    • 3G technology for reducing data-transmission errors

    • A method of tethering a mobile phone to a PC

    Samsung shares dropped 2.6% Friday, representing roughly $3.6 billion in shareholder value, according to applepatent's Patrick Igoe. "I have to imagine," he wrote Friday, "there are people in Samsung's memory, SSD, display, and processor businesses who are not thrilled to see this escalate."