Shenzhou Technology's Beijing R&D center has moved to a newly renovated office building.

Since last year, Zhongguancun has continued to have office buildings, and real estate has become one of the most profitable industries in Zhongguancun.

Song Weiyang first visited the EDA laboratory that had just been built but had not yet been officially put into use.

As a result, as soon as I walked in, I saw several researchers playing a game of minesweeping, and Liu Qiang, who accompanied the visit, suddenly had a black face that could drip ink.

Liu Qiang is no longer very involved in specific R&D work, mainly responsible for project-level control, doing nothing, but he needs to check everything.

"Ahem," Liu Qiang coughed twice, "The chairman has come to visit you." Also, turn off the game and play minesweeper during work hours, what kind of system!"

"Hello chairman!"

The researchers got up one after another to greet him, and then stared at Song Weiyang, obviously very curious about his chairman.

Today's duty director of the laboratory is a young man with a pimple face, and he quickly explained: "The EDA laboratory is doing the final test, and the test will take a certain amount of time, so everyone will play minesweeper to relax." If the chairman and Liu Gong have opinions, then we won't play in the future. ”

Song Weiyang said with a smile: "It's okay, it's okay to combine work and rest, as long as you don't delay your normal work." It's all young people, I understand. ”

"Long live the chairman!"

A large group of technical nerds immediately cheered, feeling that their chairman was very kind, and then ran to chat with Song Weiyang with a smile.

After staying in the EDA laboratory for a while, Song Weiyang went to visit other project teams, and finally returned to the office, told him about the idea of developing a USB flash drive, and asked, "It's not technically difficult, right?"

Liu Qiang suddenly became excited: "Of course there is no difficulty, the USB interface technology is ready-made, and the flash memory technology is also ready-made, we only need to develop a docking communication control program under the USB interface technology file and the flash memory interface technology file." This is a genius idea, with this kind of mobile flash drive, it can greatly facilitate the mobile storage of data, and it can become popular all over the world! Chairman, who came up with this idea?"

Song Weiyang said: "I felt that the floppy disk was inconvenient to use, so I wanted to make a more convenient storage. ”

"The chairman is the chairman, you can think of it. Liu Qiang said with a smile.

Song Weiyang said: "You just said that there are USB interface patents and flash memory technology patents, so what other patents can we apply for?"

Liu Qiang said: "It's the patent for this kind of USB memory." ”

"That is, there is no difficult patent?" Song Weiyang asked.

"It's not difficult, I estimate that a few technicians can be called and it can be done within a month," Liu Qiang still said happily, "The key to this patent is not the technical difficulty, but the idea, which is equivalent to piercing a layer of window paper!"

"Well, there will be a patent lawsuit in the future. Song Weiyang said speechlessly.

Historically, the company that invented the USB flash drive was Shencheng Langke, and in the case of several foreign companies competing for patents, Langke has been recognized by the Chinese and American patent offices, and its inventor status is beyond doubt.

There is a joke in the industry about Langke, saying that this company started with patent research and development, and then relied on patent lawsuits to survive.

Until 2018, few people have used the USB flash drive, and the sellers of Huaqiangbei can only earn 1 yuan by selling a USB flash drive. However, the U disk-related patent income of Langke this year is still more than 36 million, and its annual profit is only more than 60 million, and the U disk patent accounts for more than half of the company's annual profit.

Anyway, as long as there is no money, Langke will find someone to fight a patent lawsuit, and he can always get a sum of money to make do with his life (he has sued Nippon Sony, and he has sued the United States, and the patent lawsuit has been won).

It's a pity that this company used to have a good position in China's high-tech industry, but until 2018, it was still eating the old patent book at the end of 1999. Moreover, the U disk patent will expire at the end of 2019, and it is estimated that after no patent income, Langke will die miserably.

Ronco died of internal strife.

Before going public, entrepreneurs can still work together. After the listing, the contradiction broke out instantly.

In the four years since its listing, a total of 76 board resolutions have been opposed or abstained, and 14 shareholders' meeting resolutions have been opposed or abstained, which is very rare in A-shares.

The two inventors of the USB flash drive used to be close, and they dismantled each other after the company went public. You are against me, I am against you, and the work cannot be carried out at all, so you can only eat your old book until you die. They had a lot of money at the time, and as long as they found the right project, they could have a place in China's technology industry.

After Song Weiyang understood the technical difficulty of the USB flash drive, he immediately decided to do two things: apply for a technical patent as soon as possible and immediately set up the company's legal department.

Like this kind of best-selling product with no technical threshold, there will definitely be countless follow-up manufacturers. And no matter at home or abroad, they will not take the initiative to give you patent fees, you have to sue one by one. If manufacturers all over the world were very conscious, Langke, who was sitting on the U disk patent, would have been lying down and counting the money.

Song Weiyang suddenly asked again: "Do you need a chip to make this kind of flash drive?"

Liu Qiang nodded and said, "I really need a chip." ”

Song Weiyang suddenly had an idea: "We will develop the chip ourselves, and then use this chip and other components to make the movement, and the main business in the future will be the movement." ”

"Why don't you make your own USB flash drive?" Liu Qiang puzzled.

Song Weiyang said: "Of course, we also have to make our own USB flash drive, well, this thing is called a USB flash drive." However, there must be many copycat manufacturers in China, and it is too troublesome to file lawsuits one by one. It is better for us to make movements, sell them for assembly, and directly control their supply and scale. Of course, lawsuits will definitely be fought, and those who are unwilling to pay royalties will be suered! You should quickly develop the technology, and we will apply for a patent as soon as possible. “

"No problem, there will definitely be results in a month!" Liu Qiang said.

In fact, it takes time to apply for a patent.

In the summer of 1999, the company successfully developed the project and immediately applied for a patent, which was not approved by the China Intellectual Property Office until 2002 and the U.S. Patent Office in 2004. The five-year international patent blank period has caused the company to suffer heavy losses, and it can only settle accounts with a few of the largest foreign companies, while most of the infringing manufacturers are at large.

Song Weiyang's idea is to make movements, make them himself and sell them to domestic manufacturers, and ask bending companies to sell them to overseas manufacturers. Let's not talk about patent fees, wait for the patent application in China, and immediately start collecting the bills. If you don't get the money, you can go out of stock directly, at least it can make the unruly guy's business chaotic for a while.

This is a very operational idea, because Shenzhou Technology is the first company in the world to make a USB flash drive, and the manufacturing cost of Chinese mainland and curved movements is very low. How to make U disk by domestic and foreign manufacturers, they must first find Shenzhou Technology to order, which can save a lot of costs.

After developing some domestic and foreign manufacturers into partners, they can even charge less or no patent fees, and then contact the cooperative manufacturers to sue the competitors for infringement.

Those who have attained the Tao have much help, and those who have lost the Tao have little help.

The way to do business is profit.

At that time, it will not be Shenzhou Technology alone, but there will be cooperative manufacturers who will take the initiative to help fight the lawsuit - for them, the more competitors die, the better.

Of course, the premise is to obtain a patent as soon as possible.

On the Chinese side, Academician Ni is still very well-connected, and Song Weiyang can also spend money to ask others to help. Without violating the regulations, the patent examination time will certainly be greatly reduced, at least not by three years like the one that Langke did.

And in the United States, aren't there many Wall Street venture capital firms who want to take a stake in Google?

The time has come to negotiate, so attach another condition and let them help urge the US Patent Office.

Doing business should be played like this, Langke is too hard to do, stupid lawsuits one by one, then it has to be fought until the Year of the Monkey.