Facebook可能反訴雅虎侵權

????周一，雅虎（Yahoo）一紙訴狀將Facebook告上法庭，稱Facebook侵犯了自己的專利權。其實，早在去年11月，MDB Capital投資公司的一名分析師預言了這場官司。MDB Capital是一家華爾街投行，專門投資擁有大量知識產權的企業。

????這位名叫艾林?邁克爾?吉爾的分析師日前接受了《財富》雜志（Fortune）的采訪，他認為Facebook并沒有被這次攻擊完全打亂陣腳，反而可能會發起反擊，向雅虎提起訴訟，指控雅虎侵犯了自己早先購買的某些專利。事實上為了避免這類的攻擊，Facebook早已未雨綢繆地收購了一批專利。吉爾指出，現在Facebook的資產中至少包含54項美國專利，其中有30項是在過去兩年內購得的，有22項還是在去年8月以后才購得的。

????不過吉爾還表示，由于雅虎的專利在數量、覆蓋面和性質上都占有優勢，因此Facebook最后可能會被迫與雅虎達成一項交叉許可協議，并根據協議支付“一大筆錢”給雅虎。另外雅虎的上訴時機也選得正是時候。再過幾周Facebook就要進行首次公開募股了，屆時Facebook的估值預計將達到1,000億美元左右。

????那么Facebook到底侵犯了雅虎的哪些專利呢？吉爾指出：“在本案中，雅虎主張Facebook侵犯了它的10項專利，這些專利廣泛涵蓋了Facebook的許多核心功能和特性。出了這種事，我們不能指望Facebook說：‘好吧，我們能繞開這些專利來設計產品嗎？’或是‘我們能證明這些指控無效嗎？’或許有可能，但是非常困難……雅虎在本案中可以拿出一波又一波的專利權主張?！保硗饧獱柋硎?，他本人和他任職的MDB Capital公司都不持有任何Facebook或雅虎的股票。）

????據負責本案的加州圣何塞聯邦法庭介紹，雅虎的專利主張包括一系列與“信息傳送、動態消息生成、社交評論、廣告展示、防止點擊詐騙以及隱私控制”相關的發明。Facebook則在一份聲明中表示：“我們將積極抗擊這些令人費解的行動?！?/p>

????吉爾曾受邀替維權股東丹尼爾?洛布的第三點（Third Point）對沖基金評估雅虎的專利資產，因為自去年9月以來，這家對沖基金已經收購了雅虎這個已經陷入困境的搜索巨頭超過5%的股份。另外在成為MDB Capital的知識產權總監以前，吉爾還曾在奧巴馬政府任職，負責評估美國專利與商標局（the US Patent and Trademark Office）的戰略和運作。吉爾在職業生涯的早期階段還做過專利審查員。

????吉爾回憶起自己曾對雅虎的專利資產做過分析。他說：“我當時突然想到一件事，那就是雅虎專利對Facebook的適用性?！焙髞淼谌c基金安排吉爾認識了對雅虎持看多預期的基金經理埃里克?杰克遜，再后來杰克遜在福布斯網（Forbes.com）寫了一篇文章，分析了雅虎與Facebook的專利沖突。

????The patent suit filed yesterday by Yahoo against Facebook was effectively predicted last November by an analyst at MDB Capital, an investment bank that finances companies rich in intellectual property.

????Now, in an interview with Fortune, that same analyst, Erin-Michael Gill, predicts that Facebook -- which has not been caught completely flat-footed by the attack -- will respond by countersuing Yahoo, asserting patents it has acquired in anticipation of this type of attack. Facebook, whose portfolio now includes at least 54 granted U.S. patents, has acquired 30 of those in the past two years, notes Gill, including 22 since August.

????Nevertheless, Gill predicts, in the end Facebook will probably strike a cross-licensing deal that calls for it to cough up a "substantial sum" to Yahoo (YHOO), because of the number, breadth, and nature of Yahoo's patents. Yahoo's timing isn't likely to hurt, either. The suit landed just weeks before Facebook's anticipated IPO, which is expected to value the company at some $100 billion.

????What does Yahoo have on Facebook? "Here Yahoo is asserting 10 patents, covering a broad diversity of core functions and features of Facebook," Gill says. "This is not the kind of thing where you would expect Facebook to say, 'Okay, could we design around all these claims?' or 'Could we prove invalidity of all these claims?' It's possible, but fairly difficult. . . . Yahoo has wave after wave of claims here." (Neither Gill nor MDB has any stake in either Facebook or Yahoo, he says.)

????Yahoo's patents, according to the suit filed in federal court in San Jose, California, cover inventions relating to "messaging, news feed generation, social commenting, advertising display, preventing click fraud, and privacy controls." In a statement responding to the suit, Facebook said, "We will defend ourselves vigorously against these puzzling actions."

????Gill was first asked to assess the strength of Yahoo's patent portfolio by activist shareholder Daniel Loeb's hedge fund, Third Point, which has acquired more than 5% of the struggling search giant since September. Prior to becoming MDB's chief intellectual property officer, Gill was a political appointee in the Obama administration reviewing the US Patent and Trademark Office's strategy and operations. Early in his career Gill was a patent examiner.

????Gill recalls doing an analysis of Yahoo's patent portfolio. "One thing that jumped out at me was its applicability to Facebook," he says. Third Point then put Gill in touch with Eric Jackson, a fund manager with long positions in Yahoo, and Jackson wrote a story in Forbes.com about Yahoo's potential patent strength vis-à-vis Facebook.