发明的发明

嘿。

Hey.

我是埃里卡·贝拉斯。

This is Erika Beras.

在开始节目之前，我想告诉你们，我非常兴奋能在匹兹堡的图书巡演中亲自见到你们——我们的听众。

Before we get to the show, I wanted to tell you how excited I am to see you, our listeners, in person on our book tour in Pittsburgh.

我可能有一个新故事想和大家一起探讨，我还将与卡内基梅隆大学的凯文·佐尔曼对话，他是《游戏理论父母指南》的作者。

I may have a new story I wanna workshop with you all, and I'm gonna be talking with Carnegie Mellon's Kevin Zollman, the author of The Game Theorist Guide to Parenting.

《Planet Money》图书巡演将前往十二个城市。

The Planet Money book tour is going to a dozen cities.

每一场活动都将独具特色，拥有不同的主持人和嘉宾。

Every stop will be totally unique with different hosts and guests.

如果你购买了门票，还可以在库存允许的情况下获得一款巡演专属的托特包。

And if you get a ticket, you can get a tour exclusive tote bag with your purchase while supplies last.

请在节目说明中的链接查找离你最近的场次，或访问 planetmoneybook.com。

Find the show nearest to you at the link in the show notes or go to planetmoneybook.com.

谢谢。

And thank you.

这是来自NPR的Planet Money。

This is Planet Money from NPR.

当我想到发明家时，我会想到像这个人这样的家伙。

When I think of an inventor, I think of somebody like this guy.

我叫莱昂纳多·卡维尼奥内。

My name is Leonardo Carvignone.

一位名叫莱昂纳多的意大利发明家。

An Italian inventor named Leonardo.

得了吧。

Like, come on.

他非常热情、聪明且一丝不苟。

He's very passionate, very smart, and very precise.

你会说五种语言。

You speak five languages.

这是真的吗？

Is that true?

这意味着你查阅过关于我的维基百科页面。

So this means that you have consulted Wikipedia about me.

是的。

Yes.

这正是我非常反感的事情。

And that is something that I really hate.

莱昂纳多确实会说五种语言，包括日语。

Leonardo does actually speak five languages, including Japanese.

他只是不希望某个陌生人在维基百科上替他发言。

He just doesn't want some random person on Wikipedia speaking for him.

当我去世后，人们可以随意地、或不那么权威地谈论我。

When I will be dead, I mean, people can talk as authoritatively or not about myself.

但只要我还活着，我就只能由我自己来定义自己。

But as long as I am alive, I am the only one that describe to myself.

是的。

Yeah.

他希望由自己来书写自己的故事，而对我们而言，这不仅仅是一个关于莱昂纳多及其发明的故事。

He wants to be the one to write his own story, which for our purposes is not just a story about Leonardo and his invention.

这是一个关于我们如何思考发明本质的故事。

It's a story about how we even think about the nature of invention.

事情要从20世纪80年代说起，当时莱昂纳多在如今的意大利电信公司工作，他有一个大胆的构想。

It begins back in the nineteen eighties when Leonardo was working at what is now Telecom Italia, and he had a big idea.

我的梦想是，创造一个每个人都能与任何人交流的世界。

My dream was I want a world where everybody can talk with everybody else.

莱昂纳多的愿景，基本上就是我们今天所生活的世界。

The vision Leonardo had is pretty much the one we live with today.

这是一个易于分享媒体、尤其是视频的世界。

It's a world where it's easy to share media and, in particular, video.

我想要一台能无处不在的电视。

I want a television that goes everywhere.

莱昂纳多在模拟电视时代就有了这个想法。

Leonardo had this idea back in the days of analog television.

视频是存储在磁带上的。

Video was stored on tape.

想想磁带、VHS录像带。

Think cassettes, VHS.

它既脆弱又笨重，不仅难以存储，也难以像电视那样传输。

It was fragile and clunky and difficult to store, but also to transmit like the TVs.

因此，广播公司正在寻找数字视频，但那时数字视频还处于早期阶段。

So broadcasters were looking to digital video, but that was in its early stages.

新数字视频文件的问题在于它们体积非常大，无论是从虚拟还是物理角度来看都是如此。

The problem with the new digital video files was that they were also really big, like both virtually and physically.

比如，一小时的电视节目。

Like, take for example, an hour of television.

在数字格式下，它会占用大量

On digital, it would take up a lot

的空间。

of space.

大概是100块硬盘。

Probably something like 100 hard disks.

仅仅一小时的电视节目就需要100块硬盘。

100 disks just for one hour of television.

是的。

Yes.

这些大型文件再次难以传输。

These large files were, again, hard to transmit.

因此，如果数字视频想要在全球普及，莱昂纳多意识到，世界各地的广播公司都需要更小、甚至极小的文件，以使传输更轻松、成本更低。

So if digital video was gonna take off across the world, Leonardo realized that broadcasters everywhere would need a smaller, maybe even tiny file to make transmitting it easier and less expensive.

于是我发明了名为MPEG的东西。

So I invented the thing called MPEG.

MPEG。

MPEG.

M P E G。

M P E G.

什么是MPEG？

What is an MPEG?

什么？

What is?

哦，它有很多含义。

Oh, it's many things.

哦。

Oh.

MPEG是一种文件格式的名称。

MPEG is the name of a file format.

嗯。

Uh-huh.

然后MPEG也是我发给你的文件的名称。

And then MPEG is the name of I'm sending you an MPEG.

是的。

Yeah.

这正是大多数人了解MPEG的方式。

That is the way most people would know MPEG.

MPEG是一种视频文件格式，有点像图片的JPEG或音频的MP3。

MPEG is a kind of file format for video files, kind of like a JPEG for pictures or an MP three for audio.

MPEG将庞大的视频文件进行压缩，使其变得小得多，从而让视频的存储、下载和在旧式电子设备上播放变得更加容易和便宜。

MPEG took huge video files and compressed them, made them way smaller to make it easier and cheaper to store video, to download it, and to play it across different old school electronics.

但列奥纳多并没有发明这项技术本身。

But Leonardo didn't invent the actual technology.

他更像是一个幕后策划者，将来自多家公司的各种技术创新整合在一起，创造出了一种新事物。

He was more like the mastermind, pulling together a bunch of different technological innovations from a bunch of different companies to make a new thing.

这就是它获得MPEG这个奇怪名字的原因。

That's how it got that weird name, MPEG.

它的全称是动态图像专家组。

It stands for Moving Pictures Experts Group.

我们联系莱昂纳多，并不是为了理解他带来的这项技术。

And the reason we called up Leonardo isn't to understand this technology he brought into the world.

而是因为MPEG取得成功所付出的代价。

Rather, it's because of what it took for MPEG to succeed.

因为MPEG引发了一个重大而关键的问题：在法律的框架下，发明家们何时可以、何时不可以合作。

Because MPEG raised a huge important question about when inventors can and cannot work together under the eyes of the law.

事实上，MPEG就像是数字视频的一种新语言。

See, MPEG was sort of like a new language for digital video.

为了让他的MPEG作为这种新语言取得成功，所有存储、传输和接收视频的电子设备都必须使用同一种语言。

And in order for his MPEG to succeed as that new language, all the electronics that stored, sent, and received the video, they all had to speak that same language.

这意味着制造和运营这些电子设备的公司必须达成一致。

Which meant the companies making and running those electronics needed to agree.

好的。

Okay.

我们都将采用它。

We're all going to use it.

我们都将使用MPEG语言。

We're all going to speak the language of MPEG.

你们一开始意识到哪些事情会给你带来麻烦？

What were some of the things that that you realized at the outset would cause problems for you?

不。

No.

只是人们不会在意。

Simply that people would not care.

那是最糟糕、最糟糕的事情。

That is the worst the worst thing that can happen.

所以我有这个愿景。

So I had the vision.

但你知道，你必须让这个愿景被接受。

But but, you know, you have to have that vision accepted.

这是下一个重大障碍，因为当时存在许多竞争性的数字格式，人们在该使用哪种语言上意见不一。

That was the next big hurdle because there were all these competing digital formats, and people were divided about which language to speak.

因此，为了让MPEG成功，莱昂纳多和意大利电信需要一大批公司聚在一起，共同做出决定：确保这种数字格式能在我们的设备上正常运行。

So for MPEG to succeed, Leonardo and Telecom Italia needed a bunch of companies to all get together and make a collective choice to say, we're all going to make sure that this digital format will work on our machines.

这样我们的设备才能彼此兼容，就像签订了一份合同一样。

So our machines can all work together, like assigning of contract of sorts.

事实上，许多公司喜欢MPEG，并且确实希望这么做。

And in fact, a bunch of companies liked MPEG and did wanna do that.

但还有一个小问题。

But there was just one little problem.

这些公司之间就使用这种新语言达成的协议，是合作，还是串通？

Was this agreement between these companies to use this new language collaboration, or was it collusion?

您好，欢迎收听《星球金钱》。

Hello, and welcome to Planet Money.

我是萨姆·黄马·凯斯勒。

I'm Sam Yellowhorse Kesler.

我是埃里卡·贝拉斯。

And I'm Erika Beras.

当利昂纳多和众多公司及发明家都希望合作，将MPEG打造成数字视频的新高效语言时，却面临一个重大问题。

When Leonardo and a bunch of companies and inventors all wanted to collaborate to make the MPEG the new efficient language of digital video, there was just one big problem.

美国的反垄断法禁止企业做出集体决策来打压竞争对手。

American antitrust law barred companies from making collective decisions to stamp out their competition.

因此，为了向政府证明这种合作不仅合法，而且将惠及全球民众，他们不得不转向另一项发明——一个多世纪前的胜家缝纫机。

So to convince the government that this collaboration was not only legal, but that it would be a boon to people everywhere, they had to look to another invention, one from more than a century earlier, the Singer sewing machine.

今天在节目中，我们将讲述胜家缝纫机如何为发明家们在不构成共谋的前提下开展合作奠定基础，以及它如何塑造了我们今日所生活的科技世界。

Today on the show, how the Singer sewing machine laid the groundwork for inventors to collaborate without colluding, and how it created the technological world we live in today.

这是一个专利池兴起、衰落与复兴的故事。

It's the story of the rise and fall and second coming of the patent pool.

本节目信息由嘉信理财提供。

This message comes from Charles Schwab.

在财富管理方面，嘉信理财为您提供更多选择，例如当您需要时，可享受全方位的财富管理与咨询服务。

When it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices, like full service wealth management and advice when you need it.

您也可以自行投资，并通过Thinkorswim进行交易。

You can also invest on your own and trade on Thinkorswim.

访问 schwab.com 了解更多信息。

Visit schwab.com to learn more.

好的。

Okay.

我们的意大利发明家莱昂纳多和一大批大公司希望将 MPEG 变成视频共享的通用语言。

So our Italian inventor Leonardo and a bunch of huge companies wanted to make the MPEG a universal language for sharing video.

但这些公司都需要找到一种合作而不串通的方式，这是一项复杂的任务。

But all those companies needed to figure out a way to collaborate without colluding, and that was a complicated endeavor.

如何让一项庞大而复杂的技术协议变得简单且合法？

How do you make a big complex technological agreement simple and legal?

答案隐藏在另一个一个多世纪前的发明故事中，那就是艾萨克·梅里特·辛格发明的胜家缝纫机。

The answer was hidden in the story of another invention from more than a century earlier, the Singer sewing machine invented by Isaac Merritt Singer.

你身上的衣服——不管你现在有没有穿着，我也不想评判你听播客的方式——很有可能是用胜家缝纫机缝制的。

Your clothes, the ones you may or may not be wearing right now, I don't wanna judge how you listen to podcasts, there's a decent chance that they were made using a Singer sewing machine.

而胜家缝纫机背后的那个人，也是另一位性格鲜明、有些特立独行的发明家。

And the man behind the Singer sewing machine was another one of those colorful, somewhat particular inventors.

有些人形容他是个脾气暴躁的无赖。

He was described by some people as an irascible scoundrel.

他脾气非常暴躁。

He had a violent temper.

迈克尔·马蒂奥利是印第安纳大学的法学教授，他撰写过大量关于专利的文章，包括关于辛格的。

Michael Mattioli is a law professor at Indiana University, and he's written a ton about patents, including singers.

他还曾用不同的名字娶了至少五位妻子。

He was also married to at least five women under different names.

同时吗？

At the same time?

同时。

At the same time.

是的。

Yes.

好的。

Okay.

我们查了一下，不是同时有五个，可能是三个。

We looked it up, and it wasn't five at the same time, maybe three.

而且，他还有很多情妇。

Plus, there were a bunch of mistresses.

他还承认了20个孩子。

He also had 20 children that he acknowledged.

迈克尔告诉我们，辛格是个演员，但他更擅长发明东西。

Michael told us Singer was an actor, but he was better at inventing things.

他发明了一种用于钻穿岩石的钻头。

He invented a drill to bore through rocks.

他还发明了一种在木头上刻字的工具。

He also invented a tool for engraving text into wood.

早在1850年，辛格就在波士顿，偶然遇到了一种原始的缝纫机。

Back in 1850, Singer was in Boston, where he happened upon this sort of rudimentary sewing machine.

那和我们今天所知的缝纫机完全不一样。

It was nothing like the one we know today.

它有一个手摇柄和一个弯曲的针，上下运动的样子有点像订书机。

It had a hand crank and a curved needle, and it kind of moved up and down like a stapler.

据说，他看到这台机器后说：我能做得更好。

And the story goes that he saw this machine and said I could do better.

他一眼就看出了几处可以改进的重大地方。

Right off the bat, he saw a few major improvements he could make.

他想到可以用一根直针，悬挂在上方的臂架上。

He came up with the idea that you could have a straight needle that would be suspended from an arm overhead.

辛格开始日夜不停地埋头苦干。

Singer started toiling away working day and night.

实际上，有人会为他举着灯，而他则尝试让机器运转起来。

Someone would hold the lamp for him, actually, while he would try to make the machine work.

在他生平的记载中，辛格说，有一天深夜，他和那个举灯的人正像发明家一样苦思冥想，试图让机器缝出更紧密的针脚。

In accounts of his life, Singer says that late one night, he and that lamp holder guy were doing their inventor thing, racking their brains, trying to get the machine to sew tighter stitches.

他们不断测试，但总觉得哪里不对劲。

They kept testing it, but something just wasn't right.

于是，他们感到沮丧，准备回去了。

So feeling dejected, they headed back for the night.

但在凌晨一点左右，回家途中，这个人转向辛格说：嘿。

But on their way around 1AM, this guy turns to Singer and he says, hey.

你注意到缝线上的那些奇怪的线圈了吗？

Did you notice those funny little loops of thread on the seam?

辛格说：天啊。

And Singer says, by god.

他确实说了这句话。

He actually said that.

那个举灯的人把这句话记了下来，因为他不喜欢辛格总说脏话。

The lamp holder guy wrote it down because he didn't like that Singer curses so much.

他说：天啊，我们需要给线增加张力。

He said, by god, we need to add tension to the thread.

于是他们跑回车间，调整了张力，再次试机，终于做出了至少五个完美的针脚。

So they ran back to the machine shop, adjusted the tension, and tried the machine, and they got at least five perfect stitches.

线断了，但这就足以证明秘密全在于线的张力。

The thread snapped, but that was enough to see that the secret was all in the tension of the string.

辛格做了一些调整，使线不再断裂，于是他的发明——辛格缝纫机——就这样诞生了。

Singer made some adjustments so the thread didn't snap, and there it was, his invention, the Singer sewing machine.

他在1851年获得了专利。

He got his patent in 1851.

对辛格来说，这项专利是政府颁发的证明，确认他是这项技术及其机器的发明者和所有者。

And for Singer, this patent was government issued proof that he was the inventor and owner of this technology, his machine.

这意味着只有他才能从中获利。

It meant only he could profit off of it.

这就是专利的作用。

And that's what patents do.

它们本质上是政府授予的小型垄断权，用以激励创新。

They are basically like little government granted monopolies that incentivize innovation.

辛格的专利取得了巨大成功。

And Singer's patent was a huge success.

几年内，胜家公司就开始生产数百台缝纫机。

Within a couple years, the Singer Corporation was making hundreds of sewing machines.

他的机器在1855年世博会上获奖，胜家因此变得富有。

His machine won a prize at the eighteen fifty five World's Fair, and Singer became wealthy.

但财富也带来了敌人。

But with that wealth came enemies.

一场缝纫机战争正在酝酿。

A sewing machine war was brewing.

但你要记住，这是工业革命时期，许多人正在发明各种各样的东西。

Because what you have to keep in mind is this was the industrial revolution, a time in history when lots of people were inventing lots of things.

有些人站在彼此的肩膀上，而另一些人则踩着彼此的脚趾。

And some were standing on each other's shoulders and others were stepping on each other's toes.

所以，当胜家在缝纫机领域崭露头角时，另一个人却在一旁愤愤不平，他就是另一位早已发明了类似胜家机器原型的发明家。

So a singer was making his name in the sewing machine world, someone else was sitting on the sidelines seething another inventor who'd already made another sewing machine similar to that janky one Singer based his machine on.

伊莱亚斯·豪 Jr. 发起了这场战争的第一波法律攻势。

Elias Howe junior fired the first legal shots in the war.

伊莱亚斯·豪也为其缝纫机的某个部件申请了专利。

Elias Howe had also patented part of his sewing machine.

事实上，辛格在他的机器中使用了豪的发明部件，但他从未从中赚到一分钱。

And in fact, Singer had used a part of Howe's invention in his machine, but he never made any money off of it.

他并没有变得富有。

He did not get wealthy.

所以当豪看到辛格日益增长的财富时，他看到了机会，并起诉了辛格。

So when Howe saw Singer's growing fortune, he saw an opportunity, and he sued Singer.

这可以说是这场战争的开端，最终引发了全面冲突。

That was sort of the battle, and it led to the war.

他们两人在报纸上刊登广告，各自宣称自己才是缝纫机的真正发明者。

The two of them took out ads in newspapers, each saying they were the proper inventor of the sewing machine.

豪写道：想要购买缝纫机的人，请谨慎选择。

Howe wrote, you that want sewing machines, be cautious how you purchase them.

辛格反驳说：根据豪的专利制造的机器毫无实用价值。

Singer retorted, machines made according to Howe's patent are of no practical use.

辛格进行了反击。

Singer fought back.

他进行了威胁。

He made threats.

他威胁要把豪向下推下一段楼梯。

He threatened to kick Howe down a a flight of stairs.

他没有这么做。

He didn't.

至少，我们不认为他这么做了。

At least, we don't think he did.

最终，辛格同意支付豪一万五千美元（当时的货币），并为每台售出的缝纫机支付版税。

Eventually, Singer agreed to pay Howe 15,000 old timey dollars, plus royalties on every sewing machine sold.

所以这是一个妥协。

So a compromise.

但这场争斗让所有人关注到了这种新型缝纫机。

But the fight brought all this attention to the new sewing machine.

所有其他缝纫机专利不太成功的发明家都冒了出来，提起了诉讼。

All these other inventors with less successful sewing machine patents turned up out of the woodwork and sued.

格罗弗和贝克，以及惠勒和威尔逊。

Grover and Baker and Wheeler and Wilson.

辛格起诉了格罗弗和贝克。

Singer sued Grover and Baker.

格罗弗和贝克起诉了惠勒和威尔逊。

Grover and Baker sued Wheeler and Wilson.

惠勒和威尔逊起诉了辛格。

Wheeler and Wilson sued Singer.

这被称为缝纫机战争。

This was the sewing machine war.

他们都声称缝纫机的某个部件是他们发明的。

They all said that some component of the sewing machine was invented by them.

辛格不得不腾出一个壁橱来存放他所有的法律文件。

Singer had to make a closet to store all of his legal files.

这种情况不能再继续下去了。

This could not go on.

所有这些相互竞争的专利，都声称对缝纫机的某个部分拥有所有权。

All of these competing patents claiming ownership over some part of the sewing machine.

这不仅对辛格不利，似乎对整个产业、对所有类型的发明家都不利。

It wasn't only bad for Singer, but it seemed bad for industry, for inventors of all kinds.

如果每个人只要有个类似的想法就会被起诉，那谁还会去发明东西呢？

Like, why would anyone invent anything if they would then be sued by everyone who ever had a similar idea?

是的。

Yeah.

辛格做了一件以前没人做过的事。

Singer had done something that hadn't been done before.

他制造出了一台功能完善的缝纫机，改进了所有其他人的设计。

He made a functioning sewing machine, one that improved on everyone else's designs.

换句话说，他进行了创新。

In other words, he innovated.

这些诉讼和琐碎的发明者对创新造成了负面影响。

And all these lawsuits and petty inventors, they were bad for innovation.

它们制造了一种被称为专利丛林的现象。

They were creating what is known as a patent thicket.

就像一片由专利想法组成的灌木丛，你必须用砍刀劈开一条路，才能开始制造新的东西。

Like a thicket of patented ideas that you gotta machete your way through before you can even go about making something new.

为了解决这个专利丛林问题，需要一个新的想法。

To solve this patent thicket problem, a new idea was needed.

而这一次，这个想法并非来自发明家。

And this time, it didn't come from an inventor.

它来自一位律师。

It came from a lawyer.

他的名字是奥兰多·B·波特。

His name was Orlando b Potter.

他想，如果所有这些竞争对手能停止互相争斗，把他们的专利合并成一个大池子，汇集各自在机器不同部件上的最佳创意，让任何公司都能使用这些专利，会怎么样？

And he thought, what if all these competitors could stop fighting each other and put their patents together into one big pool, take all their best ideas for different parts of the machine, and make it so any of the companies could use them?

所以他指出，所有这些竞争对手实际上都在损害自己。

So he pointed out all of these rivals were harming themselves.

他是第一个提出，只要大家合作，所有人都能受益的人。

He was the first to suggest that they could all benefit just by cooperating.

真的，格罗弗和贝克、惠勒和威尔逊、胜家以及豪，他们都同意了。

And by God, Grover and Baker, Wheeler and Wilson, and Singer, and Howe, they all agreed.

1856年，他们签署了一项协议，创建了一个大型的联合专利池。

In 1856, they all signed an agreement and created one big collective patent pool.

从此，每当一家公司生产一台缝纫机，就要支付15美元，这笔钱会由专利池的成员们平分。

So now every time one of the companies made a sewing machine, they would pay $15, and that would be divided among the members of the pool.

最终有数百万台机器被售出。

Millions of machines would end up being sold.

这开启了一个全新的制造世界，而这一切都始于这项协议。

It opened up an entire world of manufacturing, and it all started with this agreement.

他们称之为缝纫机联合体，这是美国历史上第一个专利池。

They called it the sewing machine combination, and this was the first patent pool in America.

这成为一个开创性的想法。

And it became a groundbreaking idea.

关键在于，专利池不仅仅合并相似的发明，只有互补的发明才能进入池中。

The key was patent pools didn't just combine similar inventions, only complementary inventions could go into the pool.

也就是说，这些发明协同工作，形成一个更大的发明，但彼此并不重叠。

As in the inventions work together to form a larger invention, but they don't overlap.

比如，研磨咖啡的专利和制作咖啡滤纸的专利。

So, like, a patent for grinding coffee and a patent for making a coffee filter.

所以这些

So those

这就像花生酱和果酱。

two It's like peanut butter and jelly.

没错。

Exactly.

对。

Yeah.

这个专利池的理念成为了一个典范，因为在日益技术先进的世界中，它让人们能够相互借鉴发明、站在彼此的肩膀上，而不会互相踩踏，更重要的是确保每个人都能为自己的创意获得应得的赞誉。

And this patent pool idea became a model because in an ever more technologically advanced world, it allowed people to build on each other's inventions, to stand on each other's shoulders without stepping on each other's toes, and importantly, to make sure everyone got credit for their ideas.

对于消费者而言，人们希望专利池能将更优质、更实惠的发明推向市场，而专利池确实取得了巨大成功。

And for consumers, the hope was patent pools would bring better, more affordable inventions to the market, and patent pools hit it big.

它们开始出现在十九世纪和二十世纪所有重大发明中。

They started cropping up in all these major inventions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

太多了。

There were so many.

所以我正在查看我的清单。

So I'm looking through my list here.

1856年，缝纫机。

Eighteen fifty six, sewing machines.

1877年，钢铁制造。

Eighteen seventy seven, steel making.

1890年，农具。

Eighteen ninety, farm tools.

1899年，鞋类。

Eighteen ninety nine, footwear.

1900年，这个小装置能将葡萄干里的种子剔除，非常重要。

1,900, this little contraption that would take the seed out of a raisin, very important.

也许同样重要的是，1903年，汽车。

Maybe just as important, nineteen o three, automobiles.

1908年，电影。

Nineteen o eight, motion pictures.

1917年，飞机。

1917, aircraft.

1919年，美国无线电公司，RCA，抱歉。

1919, Radio Corporation of America, RCA, was Sorry.

忍不住想说

Couldn't help

它。

it.

忍不住。

Couldn't help it.

抱歉。

Sorry.

继续。

Keep going.

1921年，石油精炼。

1921, oil refining.

20世纪30年代到1938年，我们有了重型工业，比如高压电缆、液压油泵、菲利普斯螺丝。

Nineteen thirties through '38, we've got heavy industry like high tension cables, hydraulic oil pumps, Phillips screws

真的吗？

Really?

这些被用在我们家里的各种产品中。

Which are used in all kinds of products around our houses.

政府甚至在某些情况下推动了专利池，比如在一战期间需要大量飞机时。

The government even pushed for patent pools in certain situations, like when they needed a lot of airplanes for the first world war.

他们要求莱特兄弟组建一个专利池。

They asked the Wright brothers to form a pool.

但从一开始，人们就对专利池这一概念本身产生了担忧。

But from the very beginning, there were also concerns about the very idea of patent pools.

本应相互竞争的公司却聚在一起合作，甚至可能串通一气。

That companies that were supposed to compete with each other were instead getting together to cooperate, and that they might even be colluding.

对于这可能演变成卡特尔的前景，人们充满了怀疑和愤怒。

There was a lot of skepticism and outrage about the possibility that we're looking at a cartel.

是的。

Yeah.

把你们的想法集中起来，设定价格，试图垄断市场，这些都是卡特尔的所作所为。

Pooling your ideas together, setting prices, trying to dominate a market, these are all things that a cartel does.

这有点像打断竞争对手的膝盖。

It's a little like kneecapping your competitors.

所有这些担忧在二十世纪四十年代达到了顶点，当时出现了一台极其复杂的制造玻璃罐（如马森罐）的机器。

And all these concerns came to a head in the nineteen forties with this one super complicated machine that made glass jars, like Mason jars.

关键发明被称为‘gob feeder’，g-o-b。

The key invention was called a gob feeder, g o b.

他们控制了美国超过94%的玻璃容器市场。

And they had control of over 94% of US glass containers.

我可以告诉你，我正在看一张gob feeder的图片，看起来它有上千个零部件？

Can I tell you, I am looking at an image of the gob feeder right now, and it looks like there's more than a thousand components?

gob feeder就像一台大型机器，有很多活动部件，它会取用一根高温的熔融玻璃棒。

The gob feeder was like this big machine with a bunch of moving parts, and it takes a hot rod of molten glass.

那就是‘gob’，它会把玻璃液喷入模具中，制成罐子和瓶子等产品。

That's the gob, and it spits it out into a mold for jars and bottles and such.

这种gob feeder是大型玻璃器皿专利池的一部分，涉及四家不同公司。

And this gob feeder was part of a big glassware patent pool that included four different companies.

随着时间推移，这个专利池让这些玻璃制造商主导了市场的绝大部分份额。

And over time, the pool allowed these glassmakers to dominate an overwhelming majority of the market.

他们控制了玻璃液滴。

They controlled the gobs.

他们基本上就像是教父。

They were basically like the godfather.

是的。

Yes.

教父。

The godfather.

对。

Yeah.

本质上，他们就像一个卡特尔在运作。

Essentially, they were operating like a cartel.

比如，如果你是这个专利池的一员，就必须在合同中承诺不会生产与池内其他成员竞争的玻璃制品。

Like, if you were part of the pool, you had to promise in a contract that you wouldn't make glassware that competed with anyone else in the pool.

他们已经瓜分了市场。

They had divided up the market.

因此，美国政府起诉了这些玻璃制造商。

So the US government sued the glass manufacturers.

他们说这个联盟过度扩张了。

They said the pool had overreached.

这个联盟的主要目的是限制产量以固定价格，并确保竞争对手无法进入这个行业。

The primary purpose of this pool was to restrict output to fix prices and also to make sure that competitors weren't going to enter the industry.

政府表示，你们不能垄断这个行业。

The government said, you guys cannot own this industry.

这个案件一直上诉到了最高法院。

And the case went all the way up to the supreme court.

在1945年，法院表示，没错。

And in 1945, the court said, yep.

这种行为违反了《谢尔曼反托拉斯法》。

This behavior violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.

你们不能废掉你们的竞争对手。

You cannot kneecap your competition.

大法官雨果·布莱克写道，这是对任何产业领域最彻底成功的经济专制。

Justice Hugo Black wrote that it's the most completely successful economic tyranny over any field of industry.

法院表示，本质上，玻璃公司只需公平竞争，设定合理价格，不能切断那些不按你要求行事的客户。

The court said, in essence, the glass companies just had to play fair, Set reasonable prices, and you can't cut off your clients who don't do what you want.

你知道的，把撬棍收起来吧。

You know, put that crowbar away.

这个案件为一项新规则奠定了基础：为了与其他公司合作、共享发明并整合专利，你必须做到‘公平、合理且非歧视性’。

And this case laid the foundation for a new rule that in order to collaborate with other companies, share your inventions, and pool your patents, you have to be, quote, fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory.

这个缩写是什么？

The acronym?

FRAND。

FRAND.

你得友善一点。

You gotta be friendly.

我们为什么不能做朋友呢？

Why can't we be friends?

这个玻璃制品案件及其所体现的友好态度，为专利池的运作绘制了一张路线图，沿途还设置了让行标志。

This glassware case and the friendliness of it all laid out a roadmap for patent pools with yield signs along the way.

但工业界更把它们看作是停车标志。

But the world of industry saw them more like stop signs.

到了二十世纪七十年代，氛围已经从‘你能做什么’转变为‘你不能做什么’。

And by the nineteen seventies, the mood had changed from what you can do to what you can't do.

全国范围内兴起了一种新的反垄断情绪。

A new antitrust sentiment had taken hold in the country.

司法部希望拆分任何哪怕稍显垄断性质的事物。

The Department of Justice wanted to break up anything that even resembled a monopoly.

司法部甚至列出了一份禁止事项清单。

The Justice Department actually laid out a list of don'ts.

九个不准。

The nine no nos.

九个不准？

The nine no nos?

这些规定是写给成年人看的吗？

Was this written for for other adults?

这是写给成年人看的。

This was written for adults.

哇。

Wow.

这九个不准是一份清单，列出了那些绝对不能做的事，比如捆绑销售。

The nine no no's were a list of things that were big no no's, like tying.

捆绑销售本质上就是告诉客户：如果你从我这儿买一辆车，你也必须买我的轮胎。

Tying is essentially telling your customers, if you buy a car from me, you also have to buy my tires.

问题是，当发明家们看到这份九不准清单，再加上品牌方面的限制，所有这些指导似乎严重打击了任何人与其它公司合作的意愿。

The thing is when inventors saw this list of nine no nos combined with brand, all this guidance seemed to deeply discourage anyone looking to collaborate with other companies.

人们基本上不再组建专利池了。

People basically stopped forming patent pools.

在二十世纪七十年代，迈克尔的研究发现，没有一个重要的专利池被建立起来。

In the nineteen seventies, Michael's research found that not a single notable patent pool was formed.

专利池实际上已经消亡了。

Patent pools were essentially dead.

它们基本上一直沉寂到二十世纪九十年代，直到我们的意大利发明家莱昂纳多带着MPEG登场。

And they would basically stay dead until the nineteen nineties when our Italian inventor Leonardo showed up on the scene with MPEG.

广告插播后，英勇的MPEG将挑战这九项禁令。

After the break, the valiant MPEG takes on the nine no nos.

并为发明家们重新开启合作之路。

And clears the way for inventors to collaborate again.

本信息由查尔斯·施瓦布提供。

This message comes from Charles Schwab.

在财富管理方面，施瓦布为您提供更多选择，例如全方位的财富管理服务和当您需要时的专业建议。

When it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices, like full service wealth management and advice when you need it.

您也可以自行投资，并通过Thinkorswim进行交易。

You can also invest on your own and trade on Thinkorswim.

访问schwab.com了解更多信息。

Visit schwab.com to learn more.

我们已经讲述了专利池崛起的故事：艾萨克·辛格如何将所有潜在竞争对手纳入一个协作池中，以避免因窃取彼此创意而陷入无尽诉讼，转而携手合作而非彼此竞争。

So we've told you the story of the rise of patent pools, how Isaac Singer brought all his would be competitors into a collaborative pool to avoid endless lawsuits for stealing their ideas, to work as a team instead of rivals.

我们已经讲过了专利池衰落的故事：一些专利池变得过于强大，而最高法院的一项判决以及日益高涨的反垄断情绪，几乎让专利池彻底停滞。

And we've told you the story of the fall of patent pools, how some pools grew too powerful, and how a Supreme Court case and rising antitrust sentiment brought patent pools pretty much to a grinding halt.

现在，让我们来看看专利池的复兴。

And now for the rebirth of the patent pool.

八十年代再次成为技术史上的关键时刻。

The eighties was once again this crucial moment in technological history.

这并非工业革命，但一种全新的事物正在崛起，它将催生数以百万计的微小创新，而每一项创新都依赖于下一项。

It wasn't the industrial revolution, but something new was on the rise that would spawn millions of tiny new inventions, each dependent on the next.

当时正在崛起的是什么？

That thing that was on the rise?

计算机和科技，这些发明需要前所未有的协作。

Computers, tech, these inventions would necessitate more collaboration than ever.

大量的协作。

A lot of it.

海量的协作。

Tons of it.

海量的。

Gobs of it.

以意大利发明家列奥纳多为例，他梦想通过MPEG——这种全新的数字视频语言——连接世界。

Take, for example, Leonardo, our Italian inventor, and his dream of connecting the world through MPEG, this new language for digital video.

我们希望让人们开心，也让行业满意，这就是这个神奇的公式。

We want to make people happy and to make industry happy, and it is this magic formula.

这确实是神奇的公式，但前提是每个人都使用它，因为当时还有许多其他视频格式。

It was this magic formula, but only if everyone uses it because there were all these other formats for video.

如果一家公司使用一种语言，另一家公司使用另一种，那么这些设备就无法互相通信。

And if one company is using one language and another is using another, then none of the machines can talk to each other.

这就像是你买了一盏灯，却找不到能拧进去的灯泡。

It'd be like if you bought a lamp, but you couldn't get a light bulb to fit in it.

是的。

Yeah.

这些技术必须能够互操作，才能互相通信。

These things needed to be interoperable to be able to talk to each other.

消费者和制造商都有理由选择一个统一的标准，比如为这些小巧可爱的压缩视频文件制定一个标准文件格式。

It was in the interest of consumers and manufacturers to pick one standard, like a standard file format for these tiny, adorable compressed video files.

标准就像整个行业对技术规格和规范达成的共识。

Standards are like an agreement across an entire industry for technical specs and norms.

实际上，有一些国际组织专门负责制定和维护标准。

There are actually international organizations that exist just to set standards and maintain them.

因此，列奥纳多希望MPEG能成为一项大型国际标准。

So that's what Leonardo was hoping MPEG could become, a big international standard.

于是，列奥纳多与其他几家公司以及这个重要的国际标准组织合作，并聘请了一大批律师，帮助将MPEG确立为标准。

So Leonardo partnered with a handful of other companies and this major international standards organization, and they hired a bunch of lawyers to help them turn MPEG into a standard.

其中一位律师是一位来自皇后区的名叫肯·鲁本斯坦的人。

One of those lawyers was a guy from Queens named Ken Rubenstein.

我是其中一位奠基人，这么说吧。

I was one of the fathers, let's say.

你会说你是奠基人之一吗？

Would you say you're one of the founding fathers?