苹果（Apple）在一桩知识产权诉讼案第一回合中胜出，但史蒂夫•乔布斯此前曾放言要为该案战斗到“生命最后一刻”。

    本周一，美国国际贸易委员会（ITC）做出裁决，部分HTC智能手机运行的软件侵犯了苹果的一项专利，不得进入美国市场。

    不过此次裁决结果与苹果的期待尚有差距，而且进口禁令直到明年4月才能生效，HTC手机生产商宏达电及相关软件的开发者谷歌（Google）有充裕的时间修改软件以避开禁令。

    裁决结果是在美国股市收盘后公布的：

    “美国国际贸易委员会经过调查发现，宏达电违反了337号规定，因此发布有限禁令，禁止进口涉嫌侵权的个人数据和移动通信设备，以及相关软件，特此公告。委员会裁定，本禁令中涉及的商品应从2012年4月19日开始禁止进口。”（来源：科技博客AllThingsD）

    专利博客网站FOSS Patents的弗洛里安•穆勒一直密切关注这场专利诉讼，他发表博客指出，此次裁决并非苹果所期待的“致命一击”。

    苹果所赢得是一项将于2012年4月19日开始实施的正式进口禁令，不过涉及对象仅限于采用了两项所谓“数据关联专利”中所涉技术的宏达电Android手机，该专利能在电子邮件等松散文本中将电话号码和其它格式化数据标记出，以便让用户使用其它应用程序（如拨号软件）处理这些数据。进口禁令并未涉及到宏达电不具备该功能的Android产品，以及其它虽然具备该功能但没有采用专利所涉及技术的产品。

    “数据关联”功能是现代智能手机的必备功能，而如果谷歌能绕开在此案中其被判侵犯的两项专利，转而采用其它方法实现该功能，那么进口禁令将成为一纸空文。

    穆勒在FOSS Patents网站上发布了报告全文。如果想了解相关背景知识，请点击此处。

    最新消息：针对此次裁决，调研机构ISI的分析师布莱恩•马歇尔提出了几点看法，具体如下：

    • 宏达电【仅次于三星（Samsung）的第二大Android智能手机制造商】在美国智能手机市场占据20%左右的份额，过去一年全球出货量为4,400万部（苹果iPhone出货量为7,200万部）

    • 我们认为这项裁决印证了苹果的观点：Android手机确实侵犯了苹果的知识产权，而苹果在面对其它Android设备制造商的诉讼时，也会占据更有利地位。【例如三星、摩托罗拉移动（Motorola Mobility）/谷歌等】

    • 苹果现金储备高达800亿美元，我们认为它无意与宏达电或其他Android设备制造商达成财务和解。苹果意在禁止这些侵犯其丰富知识产权组合的产品开展销售。

    译者：项航

    Apple (AAPL) has won a partial victory in an intellectual property case that Steve Jobs had famously vowed to fight to his "last dying breath."

    The U.S. International Trade commission ruled Monday that the software in some of HTC's Android smartphones violated one provision of an Apple patent and that those phones would no longer be allowed into the U.S.

    But the ruling is not as broad as Apple had hoped, and the import ban doesn't take effect until April, giving HTC -- and Google (GOOG), whose software the phones were running -- time to fashion a workaround.

    The announcement was made after the close of markets:

    "Notice is hereby given that the U.S. International Trade Commission has found a violation of section 337 in this investigation and has issued a limited exclusion order prohibiting importation of infringing personal data and mobile communications devices and related software. The Commission has determined that exclusion of articles subject to this order shall commence on April 19, 2012." (Via AllThingsD)

    According to FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, who has been closely following the case, the ruling is not the knockout punch Apple had been seeking.

    What Apple has won is a formal import ban scheduled to commence on April 19, 2012, but relating only to HTC Android phones implementing one of two claims of a "data tapping patent": a patent on an invention that marks up phone numbers and other types of formatted data in an unstructured document, such as an email, in order to enable users to bring up other programs (such as a dialer app) that process such data. The import ban won't relate to HTC Android products that don't implement that feature, or that implement it in ways not covered by those patent claims.

    If Google can implement this popular feature, which users of modern-day smartphones really expect, without infringing on the two patent claims found infringed, this import ban won't have any effect whatsoever.

    You can read Mueller's analysis here. For background on the case, see here.

    UPDATE: ISI's Brian Marshall offered several "quick thoughts" on the ruling, among them:

    • HTC (#2 Android smartphone vendor after Samsung) has low-20% share of the U.S. smartphone market and has shipped ~44 million units globally over the last 4 quarters (vs. AAPL's ~72 million iPhone shipments)

    • We believe this ruling lends credence to AAPL's view that Android-based phones have infringed on AAPL's intellectual property (IP) and could lead to a stronger position for AAPL in its other cases against Android vendors (e.g., Samsung, Motorola Mobility/GOOG, etc.)

    • With ~$80 billion in net cash, we believe AAPL is not interested in a financial settlement with HTC or other Android vendors but wants to stop the shipment/sale of products that infringe on their vast IP portfolio