"Yo, Barrister Liu is here again?"

After sorting out a large pile of patent application documents in front of him, John Lee, director of the Patent Examination Division of the British Registration Office of Hong Kong, looked up and saw lawyer Liu Zhengying standing at the door of his office with a leather briefcase and a smile, as well as two young lawyers under him who ran errands, and couldn't help but joke.

John Lee, who is well-informed, knows who the employer behind this lawyer Liu is.

With the global fame of Taiyu Technology, the British government in Hong Kong is not a dry meal, and has long found out the foundation of this company.

However, due to the closure of the mainland, they can only know that Guan Fei, the owner of the company, was smuggled from the mainland. The small law firm that helped him and his subordinates apply for Hong Kong ID cards was opened by Liu Zhengying. When Taiyu Technology developed rapidly, this lawyer Liu also grew rapidly with his thighs, absorbing a number of domestic and British and American patent attorneys, and was busy running around every day, acting as a pawn of Taiyu Technology, and maintaining the patent ownership of Taiyu Technology all over the world.

In this era, the British authorities in Hong Kong still carefully operated Hong Kong as their own homeland, and worked hard for the prosperity of Hong Kong. They are also proud of the achievements of Taiyu Technology, which not only increases employment on the island, but also improves the high-tech content of the island, and can also pay a lot of taxes every year.

For Liu Zhengying, a bright character, John Lee is also polite.

"Don't dare, I can't afford to be a barrister, I'm just eating in a civil case." Liu Zhengying had a smile of enjoyment on his face, but said modestly in his mouth.

There are barristers and junior barristers on the island.

Barristers must have graduated from a law school in the United Kingdom, and after many years of internship, obtained a license to practice law in the United Kingdom, specialising in criminal cases such as homicide. The number of barristers on the island is extremely rare, the total number does not exceed two hands, each of them is a big man on the island, has many contacts with the governor of Hong Kong and other high-ranking officials, and the friends are all rich people on the island, and many barristers have knighthoods bestowed by the British king.

Other lawyers engaged in civil litigation are collectively referred to as junior lawyers.

Liu Zhengying took refuge in a good boss, and there are more than a dozen professional lawyers under him, and dozens of lawyer professional interns run errands, and the annual income will not be less than one million. But in terms of identity and the nature of his work, he is still far from being as good as those barristers.

John Lee called him Barrister Liu, which can be said to be a compliment.

"You're here to register a patent today? What is the patent this time? "Liu Zhengying is the big money behind him, and every time he applies for a patent, he is personally received by John Lee, and this time is no exception.

"Some audio patents, this is a list I have drawn up, you can look at it first!" Liu Zhengying took a list of documents from the errand lawyer next to him, put it on the table preciously, and gently pushed it in front of John Lee with both hands.

John Lee pinched it and felt a rectangular strip of paper sandwiched inside, still a little thick. Needless to say, cheques, naturally.

When he opened the file, the first thing that caught his eye was the check, which was six figures!

He opened the drawer slightly in satisfaction, and with a slight tremor of his hand, the check floated gently into the drawer, and then he closed the drawer with his chest forward.

Everyone knew that this check was not for him to help with the fraud.

If there is an overlap in patents, it is based on the time of filing. Hong Kong and Britain do not have a patent law itself, but extend the British patent law to all colonies, and he is a small director of the patent examination department of the Hong Kong British Registration Office, but he is not so capable of covering the sky with one hand.

This check is just asking him to process it as soon as possible when he verifies that no one else has come to apply for a patent, and not to find various excuses to delay the time, so as not to be preemptively registered by other companies.

Patents are a tool for each country to protect its own interests, and it is very territorial.

Hong Kong's patents do not extend to the UK, let alone other countries such as Europe and the Americas. Patents in other countries, as long as they are not recognised in the UK, are also not protected.

In his own territory, take care of the star enterprises on the island, this authority can still be done by John Lee.

"Portable tape recorders?" He looked at the previous name patents, which were a type of trademark patent, but this kind of patent addition was judged as a common noun, and it was easy to be declared invalid. Therefore, it is very important to create a vocabulary, there is no precedent, as long as it spreads, everyone is accustomed to it, and when it comes to this word, this product will come to mind.

Coca-Cola in the United States, for example, is both a drink, but has also become almost synonymous with this stimulant carbonated drink.

The patent submitted by lawyer Liu Zhengying is a word coined by integrating a portable and tape recorder. Everyone understands it at a glance, but when you look up the dictionary, there is no such word, and once everyone accepts it, then if the portable tape recorder sells well, this word will become a fixed title for this product.

"Portable tape recorder? Lawyer Liu, this word is not clear, portable is a way, and it will be used in many places: portable suitcases, portable typewriters, ....... You're going to put those two words together, and we can't patent you! As soon as John Lee saw it, he did not hesitate to reject the application.

"So what?" Liu Zhengying also came prepared, cut the two words in half, and then put them together.

In English, there is no such word, and there is no similar usage.

"Okay, okay, you old slippery head, you let you take advantage of the loophole again!" John Lee smiled and shook his head, kind of approving of this approach.

He scanted the long list of patents one by one, and his mind was spinning.

He not only served the British authorities in Hong Kong, nor did he just accept benefits from Liu Zhengying, but also took money from some British-funded enterprises. In his heart, this order is the British authorities in Hong Kong, British-funded enterprises, and the rich people on the island, and then Taiyu Technology behind Liu Zhengying.

If some patents are valuable, he might as well hold them for a few days and then sell the patent description to a higher-level boss for them to preemptively register.

This is normal, the whole world does it.

Patents are a form of legal robbery.

To apply for a patent, the design must be disclosed, and with this design, it will not be difficult for the authorities to do it themselves or leave it to other large enterprises.

A person without strength, even if he takes shit luck and invents a revolutionary product, he will not be able to keep the fruits of his success. The more valuable the invention, if it does not have the strength to match, the more easily it will be snatched away, and the difference is only in who robs it.

Of course, you can also leave it private.

If it is not disclosed, there is no patent protection, and everyone can plagiarize it openly.

Not all enterprises will turn to the government for patent protection, some high-tech inventions, because the process and formula are not disclosed, even if other companies get the finished product, it is difficult to imitate it. Similarly, Coca-Cola, for example, did not apply for a patent, but relied on technical secrecy.

John Lee frowned after reading the technical note.

There's really nothing to say about this invention, it's a scaled-down version of the desktop tape recorder. If you want to talk about its value, he can't see it for the time being.

The big tape recorder has a desktop type, and the small one has a box type, and this portable type, whether it is up or down, he really can't see how much value it has. On the strength of audio resolution, limited to size, the circuit perfection is mostly not as good as that of the desktop, and the effect must be worse. Let's talk about portable, the cassette recorder is much smaller than it, and when you go to bed to listen to music, this head is too big.

What made him even more hesitant was that a large number of integrated blocks were used in the circuit diagram.

John Lee flipped out the thick technical manual, looked it up, and found that these integrated blocks were not produced in Europe and the United States, raised his head suspiciously, and glanced at Liu Zhengying.

Liu Zhengying smiled and didn't answer.

The reply he got was that the technical information was empty, and the core secret of the portable tape recorder was in the dozen or so audio integrated circuits. Ordinary circuits can be imitated, but integrated circuits are difficult to imitate, and the cost is high.

"Are you going to patent these integrated circuits? Why don't you just apply for it all together? John Lee pointed to the manifolds and kindly suggested.

"I thought about it, but the other party didn't provide the drawings, and I couldn't help it, so I had to make two more trips." Liu Zhengying sighed with a bitter face.

The two of them stared at each other, and both cursed in their stomachs: Old fox!

"But if this integrated circuit is cracked by someone else, apply first, I can't help you!" John Lee warned.

"Alas, only then! I hope you don't have such bad luck! Liu Zhengying said with a sad face.

Looking at the information that can't be set up for these audio integrated circuits, John Lee can't either.

He then carefully looked at the design drawings and called in the personnel who specialized in data analysis to find out if there was a similar design in the mountain of databases, so as to confirm that the circuit of the portable tape recorder was the exclusive property.

This time is not a day or two to complete, and Liu Zhengying is in a hurry.

However, some unrelated patents, such as appearance, layout, button settings, warehouse door opening method, spindle rotation mechanism, etc., were accepted under his supervision and obtained a reply from the patent office.

With this reply, the ownership of the patent is basically established.

But!

This is limited to Hong Kong.

In order to apply for patents for portable tape recorders and walkmans, Liu Zhengying's subordinates flew around the world, entering and exiting the patent offices of Japan, the United States, Britain, Germany, France and other countries. Some patents are readily accepted, while others are not recognized because they have already been registered, or the information is not complete, etc.

As a result, more than 70 percent of patents have been granted in several major economies, a result that Liu is very satisfied with.

He believes that Guan Fei and others will also recognize his work achievements.

Although not all patents have been approved, the acquisition of some key technologies is enough to prevent most companies from entering this field. As for those predators, with these patents, you can trade with them.

The worst outcome is that each side does not collect the other's patents, and can join forces to keep other competitors out.

After doing this preliminary work, he began to apply for patents for integrated circuits.

At the same time, portable tape recorders have also begun to be trial-produced in small batches in the new era. Similar to Taiyu Technology, New Era has also set up a related club, and a number of local plastic manufacturers, circuit board manufacturers, dynamic horn suppliers and other parts merchants have joined this club, opening up a second community of interests in addition to Taiyu Technology.

As for the components, naturally, all of them were supplied by the military divisions.

Although New Era is a manufacturer of portable tape recorders, it is actually only an assembly plant. The core integrated circuits are all supplied from the mainland.

After some careful planning, the promotion of portable tape recorders was also launched.