假如当初被苹果（Apple）以专利侵权为由告上法庭的是谷歌（Google）的话，那么在本周竞购北电（Nortel）破产后留下的大量知识产权组合时，谷歌可能会更加努力争胜。

    然而苹果对准的是谷歌的合作伙伴——宏达电（HTC）、摩托罗拉（Motorola）和三星（Samsung），它们生产的智能手机被指控在外观和体验上与iPhone相似。

    竞购北电的专利组合将能为Android带来一些法律保障，不过当竞标进入白热化时，谷歌却开始玩起游戏来。

    路透社（Reuters）上周五的报道称，“对当时情况很了解的三位线人表示，”谷歌的出价从数字上看非常不合常理，它使用了布朗常数（1.902160540...）和梅塞尔-梅尔德斯常数（0.2614972128...），而且当双方被允许出价超过30亿美元后，谷歌又使用了圆周率pi（3.14159...）。

    其中一位线人表示：“谷歌在出价中使用的数字甚至都不是自然数。”

    斯坦福大学数学系的才子们可能会对此感兴趣，不过对于谷歌的竞争对手——一群死板严肃的生意人而言，这一招完全没有奏效。而苹果对此次竞购则志在必得，它刚刚与诺基亚就持续了20个月的专利诉讼大战达成和解，而与三星的旷世之争还在进行中，三星刚刚要求禁止美国进口苹果的相关产品。以苹果为首的财团最终以45亿美元成功拍下北电的6，000项专利，这是迄今为止知识产权组合卖出的最高价钱。

    笔名为罗伯特•X•克林格里的马克•史蒂芬斯在科技网站cringely发表文章，列出了各大公司在此次竞购中的投入和战果，具体如下：

    • 苹果投入了20亿美元，“完全获得了北电的长期演进专利（Long Term Evolution，即4G技术）和一组可能为Android阵营设置障碍的专利包。”

    • RIM（Research in Motion，黑莓手机生产商——译注）和爱立信（Ericsson）共同投入11亿美元，“爱立信获得了专利组合的完全支付许可，RIM同样获得了支付许可”，而且根据加拿大税法，RIM还可能“从北电的亏损中获得税收减免”，从而抵消部分竞购投入。

    • 微软（Microsoft）和索尼（Sony）也共同投入了10亿美元。

    • EMC据称投入4千万美元，获得了专利组合中与存储业务相关的部分。

    拉里•佩奇和谢尔盖•布林则收获了精神上的愉悦，因为他们证明了自己仍然还记得数论。

    译者：项航

    Perhaps if it had been Google (GOOG) that was getting hauled into court for patent violations it would have fought harder to win this week's auction for the rich portfolio of intellectual property bequeathed by the bankrupt Nortel Corp.

    But it was Google's Android partners -- the HTCs, Motorolas and Samsungs of the world -- that were getting sued for making smartphones that look and feel suspiciously like the iPhone.

    And when bidding for the patents that would have bought Android some legal protection got serious, Google started playing games.

    Quoting "three people with direct knowledge of the situation," Reuters reported late Friday that Google was making bids that were literally irrational -- using numbers like Brun's constant (1.902160540...), the Meissel-Mertens constant (0.2614972128...) and, when they got permission to go past the $3 billion limit, pi (3.14159...).

    "Google was bidding with numbers that were not even numbers," one of Reuters' sources said.

    That may have impressed the math majors at Stanford, but it had no effect on the deadly serious businessmen they were bidding against. Apple (AAPL), having just settled a 20-month legal battle with Nokia (NOK) and facing a potential import ban in its epic struggle with Samsung, was particularly determined. In the end it was they who led the consortium that shelled out $4.5 billion for Nortel's 6,000 patents -- the largest sum, by far, ever paid for a collection of intellectual properties.

    According to Mark Stephens, who writes under the byline Robert X. Cringely, the cost -- and the spoils -- were split as follows:

    • Apple paid $2 billion "for outright ownership of Nortel's Long Term Evolution (4G) patents as well as another package of patents supposedly intended to hobble Android."

    • Research in Motion (RIMM) and Ericsson (ERIC) together put up $1.1 billion "with Ericsson getting a fully paid-up license to the portfolio, while RIM... gets a paid-up license plus possibly some carry forward operating losses from Nortel" for a break in its Canadian taxes.

    • Microsoft (MSFT) and Sony (SNE) put up another $1 billion.

    • EMC (EMC) reportedly paid $400 million in a side deal for a subset of patents related to its storage business.

    Larry Page and Sergey Brin got the pleasure of proving that they still remember their number theory.