On March 10, 1984, a blockbuster news spread all over the world!

"Extra! Xiaobawang was sued by Warner, demanding $350 million in compensation! ”

"The conflict between Xiaobawang and Atari escalated, and the two sides fell into a patent war!"

"Warner claims $350 million, Xiaobawang is in danger!"

In the District Court of New York, Xiaobawang Company was sued in the dock. The reason is that the game console of Xiaobawang infringes on Atari's patents. Warner demanded $350 million in cash compensation from Xiaobawang and solemnly apologized to Warner's Atari. In addition to this, Warner also asked Xiaobawang to stop selling products in the United States!

A spokesperson for Warner said: "If Xiaobawang recklessly uses the infringement of our patents to make profits, we can't think of any other solution except to see you in court!" Of course, we don't want to get rid of Xiaobawang, if Xiaobawang sincerely admits his mistake and pays us patent fees, Warner is also very tolerant! ”

In this regard, Xiaobawang Company responded angrily!

At the press conference, William Lin, general manager of Xiaobawang, said: "Although, Warner is a giant with a long history and strong heritage. However, Xiaobawang will not compromise, because we have never infringed on Atari's patents! The design of the Little Overlord is far more advanced than that of the Atari. My lawyer looked through the U.S. legal documents and made it clear that there was no patent infringement at all! We must fight this slander to the end! ”

From the beginning of the design, Xiaobawang carefully bypassed Atari's patent, and the design idea adopted was completely new. Unless a judge can change the laws of the United States, Atari can't win!

There have been similar cases in history, at the end of the 19th century, a third-rate inventor applied for a patent for a car using very abstract car design drawings. At the beginning of the 20th century, during the great development of the automobile industry in the United States, an inventor tried to get all the automobile companies to pay him royalties. Initially, some car companies gave the inventor some royalties for the sake of saving more than saving money. However, Ford flatly refused to pay the royalties, and the inventor took Ford to court. In the end, this attempt to monopolize automobile patents in the United States with just a messy drawing and the term automobile failed completely.

Home game consoles, like cars, are complex products that are assembled from parts from different manufacturers into actual products. The main patent is the design drawing, and as long as the design drawing is different from Atari, it will not infringe its patent!

In court.

Coolidge, a lawyer from Xiaobawang Company, said: "Your Excellency, and all the juries! If Atari can prove that all of the core patents included in the home console—the 6502 chip, cartridge, circuit board, and every screw—are yours, then we will admit infringement. In fact, all the electronic components needed for home game consoles are obtained by purchasing existing electronic components in the market. All you own are the design drawings of the Atari 2600 and the patents associated with the software program of the Atari 2600. The court can compare and verify the technical drawings of both parties! The drawings of our Xiaobawang company have nothing to do with Atari, and the program code of the game system is also designed by ourselves. Therefore, we believe that Xiaobawang does not constitute infringement at all! ”

"Xiaobawang Company, this is a quibble. Although, in appearance, the Overlord does not look very different from the Atari 2600. But in essence, the hardware used by the two is eighty percent similar. Atari has reason to think that this is **naked plagiarism" Warner's lawyer began to grit his teeth, "This kind of plagiarism must be severely punished!" ”

"The internal circuit structure is also different! Unless you prove that the third-rate inventors who drew abstract car designs on drawings had the right to collect royalties from major car companies such as Ford and General Motors. Or, Xerox, who invented the first microcomputer, can demand royalties from Apple, Zilog, and IBMPC. Otherwise, Atari wouldn't have been able to stop others from inventing and innovating in the console industry by inventing the first home console! Know that patents only protect your design drawings, as well as the technology you have exclusively. It doesn't include the entire gaming industry," Coolidge said fiercely.

As this lawsuit dragged on, the two sides continued to put a large number of technical materials and company letters in the court for the judicial department to test.

The size of the lawyer team hired by both parties is also increasing.

Within a few months, Xiaobawang hired more than 300 lawyers in the United States to deal with this matter. For this lawsuit, Xiaobawang has to come up with at least tens of millions of dollars in capital to support a huge team of lawyers.

Atari, on the other hand, laid off 2,000 employees last year, but this year it has hired 350 lawyers. The remuneration package paid is no less than that of the 2,000 employees who were laid off.

The two sides gradually fell into the quagmire of lawsuits, and the money was constantly being consumed.

Xiaobawang Company can also hold on, because Xiaobawang is a super money-making company that can make a profit of two or three hundred million dollars a year. However, Atari is a big old company that loses hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

In the lawsuit battle between the two, as long as Xiaobawang remains undefeated and dragged on for a long time, it can completely drag down Atari.

———————————— in the lawsuit battle between Atari and Xiaobawang, the parties involved in the two began to stir one after another.

It is said that this Tokyo.

Yamauchi, the head of Nintendo, couldn't hide his surprise and said: "Haha, Atari is really righteous enough to sacrifice himself for others." A lawsuit with Xiaobawang, no matter whether you win or lose, can wear down Xiaobawang's strength! It's time for me to take advantage of the rise! Shigeru Miyamoto, how did "The Legend of Zelda" go? ”

Shigeru Miyamoto smiled, "It's ready to go on the market for sale!" ”

"Okay, then it will be listed on March 20!" Yamauchi Pu stood up and looked ambitious, "The so-called plan is in the people, and the success is in the sky!" Now, God will help me to make Atari and Xiaobawang fight. If Nintendo doesn't take the opportunity to kill the book and rush to the world, it will be a great opportunity! ”

New York, USA.

Rupert. Murdoch has just bought 20th Century Fox, one of the seven major Hollywood movie giants in the United States, and he is not satisfied with this, constantly merging local television stations in the United States, and poaching Barry from Paramount. Diller, founder of the Fox Television Network.

Merkel has the heart to build the world's largest media network in the United States and Europe! Because of his ambitions, both in the United States and Europe, he has encountered a large number of local media boycotts!

"Barry. What is Deller's Warner stock price now? "Rupert. Murdoch asked coldly.

"$6.5 a share, with the loss of Atari Company, dragged Warner Company down!" Barry. Diller replied with a smile.

"Warner has it today!" Mercado sneered.

In the early 80s, Mercado bought a stake in Warner several times. Warner owns not only movies, records, games, but also the Warner television network, which Merck covets.

On the one hand, they fought a lawsuit with Mercado, accusing Mercado, as an Australian, of not being able to control TV stations in the United States according to U.S. law. For this reason, Mercado decisively changed her nationality to American nationality.

After that, the shareholders of Warner held a general meeting of shareholders and forcibly bought back all the shares of Warner held by Merkeldo at $22 a share. Although Mercado made tens of millions of dollars in this deal, it is a pity that it did not fulfill the wish of controlling Warner.

Now, Warner's stock price has fallen to $6.5 a share, just 30% of its previous share price. Merck also used only the first 13% of Warner's stake at most.

At current prices, Merktor could redeem his stake with the portion of the board of directors of Warners that had driven him away. Bought a 40% stake in Warner

"I'm going to mobilize $2 billion to buy Warner!" Mercado roared.

———————————— with the progress of the lawsuit, Xiaobawang's products have indeed been affected to a certain extent.

Atari Inc. constantly declares in the media: "Xiaobawang is a thief, a patent infringer!" Regardless of the outcome of this lawsuit, we sincerely hope that consumers will boycott the morally bad Xiaobawang products! ”

Some consumers, believing Atari's words, no longer buy Xiaobawang's products. There are also some dealers who are worried that this lawsuit will discredit Xiaobawang and the products will be unsalable.

Therefore, some American distributors began to stop purchasing from Xiaobawang.

In the whole of March, Xiaobawang's game consoles only sold 750,000 units, compared with 900,000 units in February, a significant contraction.

Zhang Shaojie had no choice but to let William Lin open more Xiaobawang stores in the United States to make up for the shrinking sales channels caused by the decrease in the number of dealers.

On the other hand, the company hopes to balance the loss of unfavorable sales in the U.S. market by expanding the European market.

In addition, Xiaobawang has also started plans to launch a 16-bit home game console.

16-bit home game consoles, using more advanced 16-bit CPU chips, are far more powerful than 8-bit consoles in terms of data processing and game screen quality.

Although the lawsuit has dragged down the energy of Xiaobawang Company.

However, Xiaobawang will not stop its development and research and development because of the lawsuit. If it is really a lawsuit and ignores the company's technological update and the development of new markets, then it will fall for Atari's annihilation

(To be continued)