Engineers rule China, lawyers rule the United States.

In the United States, lawyers are the best group of people, working in luxury firms, and at worst they are middle-class. Live in a high-class community single-family home with a pool and back garden, paid vacations and trips abroad every year. If you want to progress, you can be a politician or even a president. If you don't want to be too tired, you can also find a company to be a casual legal consultant.

Most companies can't afford to hire independent legal counsel, so they have to entrust legal matters to a law firm. As for those companies that are reluctant to hire lawyers, they have long been eliminated by American society. You can live without a gun, but you can't live without a lawyer. The tongue is a sharper weapon than a sword most of the time.

Six Ears Software was outsourced to a well-known law firm in Seattle. With the high annual lawyer's fee incentive, any problems of the employer can be handled in the most effective way.

Zhou Shuo's feet stepped on the thick carpet, barely making a sound. He is surrounded by transparent glass curtain walls, and the cubicles are filled with white-collar workers in suits and ties. Under the curious gaze shooting from all around, he ushered in the lawyer hired by the six ears software company in the firm.

"Mr. Joy, I'm your lawyer, Jane. Bingwin. "Jane. Bingwyn looks very shrewd and capable, but he also has a very plump figure. But between every move, he likes to be a little girl, which makes Zhou Shuo have an indescribable weird feeling.

"Hello, Ms. Bingwin. Has a Netscape representative already arrived? Zhou Shuo shook hands with her businesslikely, and then asked.

"Already in the conference room. Here comes their CEO, Mr. Anderson. "Jane. Bingwin said vigorously as he led the way in front.

"Mark. Anderson? Zhou Shuo asked in some surprise.

Simple. Bingwyn nodded. "If he's not lying, that's the name." ”

"Ms. Bingwin. Evaluate it with your professional ability. What is the winning rate of our court against Netscape? Zhou Shuo asked as she walked in front.

"Ninety percent, but not necessarily punitive damages. Because more and more software patents are registered every year, the patent court has the principle of mitigating damages if you are unaware of patent infringement. If Netscape had evidence to prove that they did not know that you had applied for a patent before designing the Netscape communication software, the penalty might not be too high. ”

This is also a strange aspect of U.S. patent law. Because the software itself cannot be patented, but only copyrighted. As a result, many American companies can only register the application of mathematical algorithms in a certain field as a patent. This method of patent registration greatly encourages the registration of software patents, so that software companies always tend to register all the methods of algorithm application.

As more and more patents for this algorithm, it becomes more and more difficult for programmers to circumvent it. If a piece of software wants to completely circumvent patent infringement, it must go through all algorithm patents to be sure that it is not infringing. But there are too many software patents in the United States, and every piece of software should do this kind of check. The cost is simply too high......

Therefore, as long as the software algorithm patent in the United States is not intentionally infringed, even if the lawsuit is lost, there will only be a relatively small amount of compensation.

"And such a clause?" Zhou Shuo's side, Yu Qiong asked dumbfounded.

Simple. Bingwyn nodded. Spread his hands and said: "If it weren't for that, any software in the United States would not be able to be written." ”

The three of them walked to the end of a hallway. Bingwyn pointed to a door and said, "Here we are." This meeting room is. Mr. Anderson asked that no lawyer be present at the first meeting, and of course I was waiting outside. If you need to. I am always available for legal help. OK？ ”

“OK。” Zhou Shuo nodded and pushed open the door of the conference room.

A middle-aged man was standing by a long window looking out of the building. When he heard the door open, he turned around. Zhou Shuo and he stared at each other for a second, and then they came together relatively.

Zhou Shuo stretched out his hand and said with a smile: "Mark. Hello, Mr. Anderson. ”

Mark. Anderson and Zhou Shuo reached out and shook each other, and Ha Luha smiled: "You must be Zhou, you have been famous for a long time." ”

Zhou Shuo let go of his hand and pointed to Yu Qiong on the side and introduced, "You can call me Joey, this is Jones, the general manager of Six Ears Software Company. ”

"Hello, Ms. Jones." Mark. Anderson reached out to Yu Qiong.

Yu Qiong looked at his hand, but he didn't mean to shake hands at all, and said unceremoniously: "Mr. Anderson If he can stop the infringement of Liu'er IM, I will be better." ”

Of course, this is not that Yu Qiong has no business demeanor, but the negotiation strategy agreed upon by her and Zhou Shuo. To put it simply, one sings red face and one sings white face. Zhou Shuo, as the actual master of the Six Ears Software Company, is not suitable for the charge. As the general manager, Yu Qiong's identity is heavy enough, but she has the advantage of a woman, and it is of course best to sing white face.

Mark. Anderson spread his hands, not being angered by Yu Qiong. He said with a smile on the corner of his mouth: "Obviously, we have some different ways of understanding the concept of infringement. ”

Yu Qiong's eyebrows were frosty, and she looked at Mark angrily. Anderson said in a stern tone: "The Netscape communication software released by your company has clearly infringed at least thirty patents of Six Ears Software Company. Including design patents, appearance patents, and even invention patents. ”

Mark. Anderson raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "You know, the granting of software patents is often repeated in the United States. ”

Yu Qiong immediately retorted: "What about appearance patents? There are also invention patents, and there are no cases in the United States where these patents have been declared invalid. ”

"It'......" Mark. Anderson was speechless for a while, pursed his lips and said: "That's right, Netscape does infringe on the patent of Six Ears IM, of course, I will only say this sentence this time without the lawyer being present." And that's why I'm willing to come and meet you, we both have what each other needs, and it's a good idea to sit down and talk. ”

Zhou Shuo stretched out his hand to stop Yu Qiong, nodded and sat down and said, "Okay, I hope we can negotiate an ideal result." ”

Mark. Anderson sat opposite Zhou Shuo, held his head high and said, "Netscape can authorize Six Ears Software Company to use our browser technology, but the technology used by Netscape Communication must also be authorized by your patent. ”

After saying that, he said as if he suddenly remembered, "Oh, that's right. The CSS technique used by the six-ear browser, we also want it. ”

Zhou Shuo nodded expressionlessly and said, "Patent cross-licensing." ”

Mark. Anderson snapped his fingers and laughed, "yes, that's fair, isn't it?" Who can win the market, everyone depends on their ability. ”

Zhou Shuo's face darkened, and he said in a deep voice: "Mr. Anderson thinks that it is fair for us to exchange the patents of our six-eared IM and browser for the patent of a software of Netscape Browser?" ”

"Don't forget, the browser market is up to me. If you don't agree, the six-ear browser will definitely not open the market. But - "Mark. Anderson stared at Zhou Shuo's eyes tightly, lowered his voice, and said fiercely: "If you want to prevent Netscape from entering the instant messaging market, you can give it a try." ”

Yu Qiong stood aside and snorted coldly and answered: "Even if Netscape pays a large punitive fine for this? ”

"Wow, it's also possible that when you get that money, Six Ears Software has been out of business for a long time." Mark. Anderson said with a sneer.

His remarks are by no means alarmist, and the trial of software patent cases in the United States can be said to be very strange. Due to the specialized nature of patent cases, many state and county courts are incapable of hearing them. So under the U.S. Supreme Court, there is a special intellectual property tribunal that is responsible for hearing cases across the country, but the bad thing is that this is a circuit court.

In other words, not only do you have to queue, but you also have to wait for a long time. Even if it's your turn, the trial won't take too long. It is basically a common thing for a lawsuit to last for five or ten years. Historically, Netscape lost the browser war to Microsoft and was acquired by AOL in 1998.

However, the lawsuit against Microsoft lasted until 2003, and in the end it only received $750 million in settlement costs, and was immediately dissolved by AOL after receiving compensation......

Mark. Anderson is not as pure as a blank slate, he just doesn't have as many resources as Microsoft, so he failed. And if he were in Microsoft's position, he would never mind using this tactic to eliminate competitors who are weaker than him. A businessman who can succeed in the mall, and who has clean hands.

Zhou Shuo's face sank, stood up and said: "We have an old saying in China, called 'If you want to fight, I will fight.'" ’”

"That means we failed to reconcile this time?" Mark. Anderson slowly stood up and asked with great momentum.

Zhou Shuo nodded and replied fearlessly, "It was you who provoked the war." ”

Mark. Anderson shook his finger and smiled, "It's not war. ”

Zhou Shuo took a deep breath, glanced at him coldly, turned around and left. He and Yu Qiong came out of the law office, and a cold wind blew on the streets of Seattle, which calmed a trace of anger in his chest a little.

"What do we do next?" Yu Qiong asked with a cold face and followed Zhou Shuo's side.

"Let's show the Internet attraction and let him know what war is, not up to him."

Zhou Shuo clenched his fists tightly and looked towards the conference room on the roof.

"Mark. Anderson, you can decide when to start a war, but you can't decide when to end it. (To be continued......)