从布拉格这样远离信息中心的偏远地带遥看苹果（Apple）的专利侵权诉讼案，我真的说不清楚陪审团对于苹果针对所谓的“快速链接”软件源自何处的解释，能否做到像丹尼尔•伊兰•迪尔格周日在AppleInsider网站上所发表的那篇文章那样心中有数【三星（Samsung）和谷歌（Google）联手窃取苹果数据探测技术解密】。

    迪尔格对于“快速链接”技术的历史进行了深入探究，但是在阅读文章的过程中，我不禁回想起了一件事，当年在苹果起诉HTC这个安卓阵营中第一个感受到乔帮主诉讼怒火的厂商时，乔布斯对自己的传记作家曾说过这样的一段话，他说：

    “我们打官司等于是在表明态度，我们就是想说，‘谷歌你XX的剽窃了iPhone的创意，吃人不吐骨头地剽窃了我们的技术。你们这些江洋大盗。’”

    “我就是只剩最后一口气……也要制止这种恶行。我要彻底摧毁安卓，因为它就是贼赃。我不惜为此发动一场热核战争。他们肯定怕得要死，因为他们知道自己有罪。”

    如果谷歌才是抄袭苹果技术的元凶——本案中的技术即是指数据探测，相关事实似乎也肯定了这一点——那为什么苹果要起诉三星呢？

    两周以前，三星公司的律师在开庭陈述中曾提出了上述疑问，这样的质疑的确能够引发陪审团的共鸣。

    事实上，早在2012年8月，我就曾尝试对此事进行过剖析，当时正值苹果对三星第一轮诉讼结束后不久。苹果在这一轮诉讼中获得了高达10亿美元的赔偿金。我在文章中这样写到：

    “现在回顾起来，（起诉三星而非谷歌）真是明智之举。随着苹果在结案陈词中将案情铺展在陪审团面前，三星的剽窃行为简直不言自明。韩国厂商不仅下作到连苹果的手机包装盒都要模仿，而且还留下了书面记录，足以证明这家公司仔细检查过iPhone触摸屏的每个方面，以期找到利用苹果的设计决策来改善三星产品的方法。

    ‘我们在审判过程中出示了海量的证据，’苹果公司的CEO蒂姆•库克在判决宣布后告诉员工说。‘这些证据表明，三星的抄袭行为远比我们知道的还要更恶劣。’

    “谷歌是否也留下了类似的书面记录尚有待观察。除此之外，谷歌还可以宣称，安卓系统并没有为它带来任何直接收益，因此抄袭并不会导致实际的利益受损，这个伎俩谷歌在应对甲骨文公司的起诉时就已经用过了。虽然安卓系统可能已经为谷歌带来了数百亿美元的广告收入，但要以此作为证据来说服陪审团，难度会更大一些。

    ‘问题的关键在于战术选择，’FOSS Patents公司的弗罗里安•穆勒说。‘我们没有任何理由认为，苹果会害怕直接起诉谷歌。针对其他设备制造商发起反击只是策略上更为方便的举动。’”

    顺便提一下，穆勒已经彻底改变了对于苹果专利诉讼策略的看法，以至于在周日与迪尔格就发表在AppleInsider上的那篇文章简单交流过意见之后，他就屏蔽了迪尔格的Twitter账户。

    看来，这家伙的气还没有消。（财富中文网）

    译者：徐黄兆

    Watching Apple's (AAPL) patent infringement trial from afar -- today, it's from Prague -- I can't tell if the jury got as clear an explanation of where Apple's so-called "quick link" software came from as the one Daniel Eran Dilger posted Sunday on AppleInsider (How Samsung & Google teamed up to steal Apple Data Detectors for Android).

    But reading Dilger's deep dive into the history of the technology I'm reminded of what Steve Jobs told his biographer the day Apple sued HTC, the first of the Android manufactures to feel the litigious wrath of Jobs:

    "Our lawsuit is saying, 'Google you f***ing ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off. Grand theft.”

    "I will spend my last dying breath... to right this wrong. I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this. They are scared to death, because they know they are guilty."

    Well, if Google (GOOG) is the company that copied Apple's technology -- and in the case of Apple's data detectors, it would seem they are -- why is Apple suing Samsung?

    Samsung's lawyers raised this question in their opening statement two weeks ago, and it's an argument that could resonate for the jury.

    I took a crack at it in August 2012, right after the first Apple v. Samsung trial ended in Apple's favor to the tune of $1 billion.

    "In retrospect, [suing Samsung, not Google] was smart move. As Apple laid out its narrative for the jury in its closing arguments, the Samsung story was an easy one to tell. Not only had the Korean manufacturer imitated Apple's designs down to the boxes the devices came in, but it left a paper trail that showed the company scrutinizing every aspect of the iPhone touchscreen for ways Apple's design decisions could improve Samsung's products.

    'The mountain of evidence presented during the trial,' Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees after the verdict, 'showed that Samsung's copying went far deeper than we knew.'

    "Whether Google left a similar paper trail remains to be seen. Moreover, Google can claim, as it did when it was sued by Oracle, that Android doesn't produce any direct revenue for the company, so there can be zero damages. Android may generate billions of ad dollars, but that's a harder story to sell a jury.

    'It's all about tactics,' says FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller. 'There's no reason Apple would have to be afraid of suing Google directly. It's just tactically more convenient to go against other device makers.'"

    Mueller, by the way, has so thoroughly changed his tune on Apple's patent litigation strategy that on Sunday, after a brief exchange with Dilger over the AppleInsider piece, Mueller blocked Dilger's Twitter account.

    Tempers, it seems, are running high.