HONG KONG — In China, cheap smartphones made by relatively¹ obscure companies aping branded designs are ubiquitous.

香港——在中国，相对不知名的公司模仿名牌设计生产的廉价智能手机随处可见。

Usually it is the major brands that go after the smaller companies for patent infringement². But one of China’s low-cost phone makers⁴ recently filed a patent complaint against Apple in the city of Beijing — and for now, it has won.

通常是大品牌追究小公司侵犯专利的责任。但最近，中国一家低价手机生产商在北京对苹果(Apple)提起专利申诉——目前暂时取得了胜利。

With an appeals process ahead, the ruling is unlikely to have a major impact on Apple. Still, the action spotlights⁵ the growing number of cases of municipal patent offices in China backing local companies against larger, international brands.

由于接下来将进入诉讼程序，这项裁决不太可能给苹果带来大的影响。但这起案件突显出在和更大的国际品牌的对抗中，本土公司得到中国地方专利局支持的案例越来越多。

According to a statement from the Beijing Intellectual Property Office, Apple infringed⁶ on a design patent used in a phone called the 100C, made by the Chinese phone maker³ Baili. The statement ordered Apple to stop selling certain older versions of the iPhone within Beijing, though an appeal of such a ruling to the courts in China usually forestalls⁷ any sales injunctions.

北京市知识产权局发布的一则通告称，苹果侵犯了中国手机生产商佰利生产的100C手机使用的一项设计专利。通告下令苹果在北京停售iPhone的某些较老的型号，不过在中国，这类裁决被告上法庭后通常会先停止销售禁令。

Apple said it had appealed, and a sales clerk at the Apple Store in the Sanlitun area of Beijing said on Friday evening that the store had received no instructions to stop selling the iPhone models and that “it is business as usual.” At the store, a handful of iPhone 6 models stood mostly unused as shoppers tapped on the newer 6s models at a nearby table.

苹果称已提起诉讼。周五傍晚，北京市三里屯苹果店的一名销售人员称该店未收到停售相关iPhone产品的指示，表示“照常营业”。店内，几部iPhone 6基本上都闲置着，顾客在体验旁边一张桌子上的新款iPhone 6s。

“IPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE models, are all available for sale today in China,” Apple said in a statement. “We appealed an administrative⁸ order from a regional patent tribunal in Beijing last month, and as a result the order has been stayed pending⁹ review by the Beijing I.P. Court.”

“IPhone 6和iPhone 6 Plus，以及iPhone 6s、iPhone 6s Plus和iPhone SE今日在华均有售，”苹果在一则声明中称。“我们对北京一个地区性专利机构上月发布的行政命令提起了诉讼，因此该命令还需接受北京知识产权法院的审查。”

The new headache for Apple comes after increased regulatory pressure and problems in China. Recently, a Chinese company won the right to sell leather goods under the iPhone trademark¹⁰ after years of legal back and forth¹¹. And Apple’s movie and book services were shut down in the country shortly after they were introduced, a sign of more serious scrutiny¹² from China’s media regulator.

在这件令人头疼的事情发生之前，苹果在中国面临的监管压力和问题正在加剧。前不久，一家中国公司赢得了使用iPhone商标销售皮具制品的权利。在这之前，双方的法律纠纷持续了数年。苹果的电影和图书服务也在引入后不久被关闭。这个迹象表明，中国媒体监管机构的审查变得更加严厉。

The Baili patent case pales in comparison to those troubles, though it underscores the day-to-day annoyances¹³ that can come with running a tech business in China.

和那些问题相比，佰利专利案微不足道，但它突显了在中国经营一家科技企业可能会频频遇到的麻烦。

The country has had its fair share of cases in which low-level manufacturers take on global brands. In perhaps the most famous, Apple paid $60 million to use the iPad trademark.

在中国，低端生产商挑战国际品牌的案件相当多。在其中一起或许最为人所知的案件中，苹果为使用iPad商标支付了6000万美元。

Patent issues like the one Apple has with Baili are common enough that a recent paper in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law examined the topic. While the paper found that China’s patent system was not structured to benefit Chinese companies, it said there had been a number of recent “high-profile patent suits filed by relatively unknown Chinese firms against high-profile foreign tech companies like Apple, Samsung and Dell.”

像苹果和佰利之间的这种专利问题非常普遍。最近发表在《范德堡大学娱乐科技法期刊》(Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law)上的一篇论文对此进行了研究。尽管文章认为中国专利制度并非朝向有利于中国公司的方向进行构建，但它表示最近“相对不知名的中国公司对苹果、三星(Samsung)和戴尔(Dell)等著名外国科技公司提起了大量广受关注的专利诉讼”。

Once a local intellectual property office in China finds an issue of infringement, companies can decide whether to appeal the matter. At that point, the issue typically is litigated or resolved via a settlement of some kind.

在中国，被地方性的知识产权局认定侵权后，公司可决定是否申诉。如果申诉，往往会将问题诉至法院或是达成某种和解。