????今年二月,，科技博客TechCrunch也采訪了吉爾,，讓他談?wù)勊姆治?。吉爾推斷道：“等領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層變更發(fā)生后”——也就是在前貝寶（PayPal）總裁斯科特?湯普森取代去年九月離職的卡蘿爾?巴茨成為雅虎CEO后，雅虎一定會(huì)有所行動(dòng),。

????Facebook的確被打了個(gè)措手不及,。Facebook2月27日收到雅虎的專利要求，《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》（the New York Times）當(dāng)天已經(jīng)把這個(gè)消息捅了出去,。（雅虎的訴狀也承認(rèn),，它是在2月27號(hào)當(dāng)天才首次向Facebook告知其專利主張。）

????Facebook昨天的聲明也揪著這點(diǎn)不放：“雅虎作為Facebook的長(zhǎng)期商業(yè)伙伴,，作為一家通過與Facebook的合作獲得了大量好處的公司（這顯然指的是Facebook去年去年9月將雅虎的一款新聞應(yīng)用整合到了全新改版的網(wǎng)站上）,，決定對(duì)我們發(fā)起法律訴訟，我們對(duì)此非常失望,。我們又一次地與媒體同時(shí)得知雅虎的決定,。”

????經(jīng)歷井噴式增長(zhǎng)的年輕公司往往會(huì)被對(duì)手借專利問題發(fā)難,，這種情況并不鮮見,。比如最近大獲成功的谷歌（Google）安卓手機(jī)操作系統(tǒng)就是個(gè)例子。谷歌突然在一個(gè)成熟的手機(jī)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)里橫插了一杠子,，但它一開始也沒有足夠的專利保護(hù),。這顯然就是谷歌去年八月斥巨資（125億美元）收購(gòu)摩托羅拉移動(dòng)（Motorola Mobility）背后的動(dòng)機(jī)——主要就是看上了摩托羅拉大量的專利資產(chǎn)。

????吉爾表示，當(dāng)他開始研究Facebook自己的專利時(shí),，他驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn),，對(duì)于一家年輕公司來說，F(xiàn)acebook擁有一些相當(dāng)重要的專利資產(chǎn),，可以用來與雅虎打?qū)＠麘?zhàn),。尤其是其中一項(xiàng)專利在雅虎自己的專利申請(qǐng)里曾經(jīng)被“引用”過12次之多。這項(xiàng)專利和其他8項(xiàng)專利都是Facebook在2010年2月向惠普公司（Hewlett-Packard）購(gòu)買的,。美國(guó)法律規(guī)定,，一名發(fā)明人在進(jìn)行專利申請(qǐng)時(shí)，必須把所有可能與本發(fā)明相關(guān)的在先專利都列出來,。知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)分析師通過分析這些引文,，就可以知道誰“參考”了誰。另?yè)?jù)吉爾的調(diào)查,，F(xiàn)acebook去年八月還向沃克數(shù)碼（Walker Digital）購(gòu)買了11項(xiàng)專利,，去年12月向飛利浦（Philips）購(gòu)買了11項(xiàng)專利。

????現(xiàn)在看來,，F(xiàn)acebook的未雨綢繆之策相當(dāng)明智,。他說：“他們已經(jīng)預(yù)見到了這種情況，因此試圖建立起正確的專利資產(chǎn)來保護(hù)自己,?！辈贿^吉爾仍然認(rèn)為，F(xiàn)acebook要想跟雅虎達(dá)成一種互不相欠,、一報(bào)還一報(bào)的交叉許可協(xié)議,，一分錢也不給雅虎，可能很困難,，因?yàn)镕acebook的專利資產(chǎn)還“沒達(dá)到那么充實(shí)的地步”,。

????吉爾認(rèn)為，隨著IPO日期的臨近,，F(xiàn)acebook肯定不想讓潛在投資者擔(dān)心這樣一些問題,，比如“萬一Facebook必須得繞開這10項(xiàng)專利怎么辦？這是否意味著它的產(chǎn)品和用戶體驗(yàn)優(yōu)化不足,？”為了解決這個(gè)問題,，徹底杜絕后患，F(xiàn)acebook可能會(huì)愿意付給雅虎一大筆錢,。吉爾指出,，等到IPO過后,，為長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)計(jì),，F(xiàn)acebook將會(huì)在一個(gè)更有利的位置上進(jìn)行一些“像樣的知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)收購(gòu)”，以進(jìn)一步加強(qiáng)專利組合。

????譯者：樸成奎

????In February, Gill was also interviewed by blog TechCrunch about his analysis. Gill speculates that "when leadership change occurred" -- former PayPal (EBAY) president Scott Thompson became Yahoo's CEO in January, replacing Carol Bartz, who had been ousted last September -- Yahoo must have decided to act.

????Facebook has indeed, maintained that it was blindsided when it received Yahoo's patent demands on February 27, the same day the New York Times broke the story. (Yahoo's complaint acknowledges that it first notified Facebook of its claims on that date.)

????Facebook's statement yesterday stuck to that theme: "We're disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially benefited from its association with Facebook" -- apparent references to Facebook's integration of a Yahoo News application into its site last November -- "has decided to resort to litigation. Once again, we learned of Yahoo's decision simultaneously with the media."

????It is common for young companies that experience explosive growth to find themselves vulnerable to patent challenges. The recent success of Google's (GOOG) Android operating system, for instance, suddenly thrust that company into the midst of a mature mobile phone ecosystem for which it did not, at first, have adequate patent protection. This was apparently the driving motivation behind Google's expensive decision, announced last August, to acquire Motorola Mobility -- and its rich patent portfolio -- for $12.5 billion.

????When Gill researched Facebook's own patents, he says, he was surprised to see that, for a young company, it actually had some significant assets of its own to yield defensively against Yahoo, including one broad patent in particular -- acquired along with eight others from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) in February 2010 -- that has been "referenced" 12 times by Yahoo in its own patent applications. When an inventor files a patent application, he must, by law, list all prior patents that might conceivably be relevant; IP analysts use these citations to get some rough notion of who is playing in who's sandbox. Facebook also acquired 11 Walker Digital patents last August, and 11 Philips patents in December, according to Gill's research.

????Now, those moves look wise. "They've been anticipating this, trying to build up the right sort of portfolio to protect themselves," he says. Still, Gill suspects that their portfolio is "not quite fleshed out to the point" where it could force a clean, tit-for-tat, cross-licensing deal, with no money changing hands.

????With the IPO approaching, he predicts, Facebook will not want potential investors worrying about questions like, "What if it has to design around 10 patents? Will that mean a suboptimized product? A suboptimized user experience?" The company will likely be willing to pay a substantial sum to get this problem behind it and never have to worry about it again, he says. After the IPO Facebook will be in a better position to do "serious IP acquisitions," Gill notes, to further shore up its portfolio for the long haul.