Reborn America, this is my time

Chapter 65 Big trouble!

After Ethan and Evelyn sat down in the office, Barbara talked about the reason why Mirov wanted to go to court.

"In our country, there is a "Federal Rules of Civil Procedure", Article No.11 of which stipulates that when the plaintiff submits a complaint to the court, the receptionist needs to review the format of the complaint, including the plaintiff or the plaintiff. The signature of the representing attorney, and it is necessary to ensure that the attorney is qualified to practice in the place where the litigation occurred."

"Because every state in our country has its own laws, if a lawyer who has obtained the qualification to practice in California represents a case in New York State, he may make some misjudgments due to unfamiliarity with the law, which is irresponsible to the client. , Therefore, in order to protect the interests of the parties concerned, the Federation requires the court to review the qualifications of lawyers."

"Although this article protects the interests of the parties involved, it also prevents some companies that obviously have legal affairs from using their own lawyers to sue, which adds a lot of litigation costs for no reason."

"However, Mirov is actually not within the scope of this clause, because they were originally a company in California. They moved their headquarters after Philips filed an acquisition last year. In this case, their lawyers are actually With a license to practice in California, for example, when Mi Luohua and Atari filed a lawsuit before, Mi Luohua directly sued Atari."

"And now, they don't let the company's lawyers directly sue you, but entrust an external law firm to send benefits to those suers. This approach can only prove one problem, and they don't care about compensation."

"That's why I said, you probably have to go to court. After all, cases with a lot of money like rights protection are not so easy to take. If they are risk agents, they can collect more money."

Speaking of this, Barbara laughed directly, "So, now I suggest that you recall whether you have offended Mi Luohua somewhere, so that a company would rather send money to the law firm than use your own lawyer."

"Especially you, Ethan, you are a former employee of Mi Luohua, I think Mi Luohua is here for you."

Although Barbara smiled and spoke humorously, trying to make the atmosphere a little more relaxed, Ethan was still a little surprised.

He didn't expect that in litigation, there are so many rules in the selection of lawyers?

The point is, Barbara can analyze the plaintiff's starting point for filing a lawsuit to a certain extent only by looking at the plaintiff's assignment of lawyers?

This Nima-

Worthy of the name of a mage!
While Ethan was in a daze, Evelyn, who had been depressed for a long time, also found an outlet.

"Oh Barbara! You are so right! We also feel that Mi Luohua is deliberately targeting us!"

"Look, this is what is written in the indictment. Mi Luohua said that our "Snake Game" infringed the patent of Mi Luohua's Odyssey. This is obviously impossible, right? Because there is no way for video games to infringe on the patent of the game console. Patent!"

"To put it more simply, video games are software! Home consoles are hardware!"

"Software infringes on hardware patents? What kind of people can come up with such an idea!"

"Barbara, I've found out, what you said before is true! Those people in the courthouse don't understand technology at all!"

Complaining endlessly, Barbara smiled and nodded.

"Oh Evelyn, don't get excited, it should be a small thing."

While reassuring Evelyn, she took the indictment.

"Let me see what these lawyers wrote in the complaint."

Open the file bag and read the words on the paper.

At first, Barbara was smiling.

But after she kept flipping through the pages, one cloud after another kept climbing over her face, making her frown tightly.

She flipped through the seven or eight pages for 10 to [-] minutes. When she raised her head again, doubts flickered in her clear eyes.

Such a situation made Ethan's heart skip a beat.

"Mr. Barbara, shouldn't we really be infringing?" He asked cautiously.

Ethan's words made Evelyn purse her lips, her eyes filled with thirst for knowledge.

Under their watchful eyes, Barbara put down the copy of the indictment in her hand, stood up, rummaged through the file cabinet behind her, and asked, "Ethan, the copyright issue of "Snake Game" How did you solve it?"

"Uh... According to what you mean, we applied for a provisional patent." Ethan said.

In the next second, he immediately realized something was wrong.

"Mr. Barbara, what do you mean, our provisional patent conflicts with them?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he felt that there was something wrong with his guess.

"No, we are making arcade machines, and they are making home game consoles!"

"I remember you said before that the two cannot be mixed? It is precisely because Mirov Odyssey is a home game console that Mirov was unable to sue Atari in the name of product infringement in the first place. Pulling "Pong" into a copyright lawsuit through patent means?"

"Don't worry." As soon as Ethan finished speaking, Barbara, who was looking for something, immediately said: "Go home now, find the receipt for the provisional application for me, and then wait for me at the patent office in San Jose."

"Evelyn, help me go to the office next door to ask for four agency agreements. I want to sign an agency contract with you. I will tell you why I will tell you later. What we have to do now is to go to the patent office to see their Odyssey patent record. !"

Although Barbara gave instructions, Ethan felt that something was wrong.

Because before that, when they consulted Barbara about legal issues, Barbara had never looked so serious.

But at the same time, Ethan also knew that now is not the time to inquire, so he returned home according to Barbara's request, found the provisional patent application receipt of "Snake Game", and then hurried to San Jose's patent office.

When he entered the hall, Evelyn and Barbara were already waiting here.

After seeing Ethan, they didn't say much. Barbara directly pointed to the agency agreement in front of her, and then stretched out her right hand.

"signature."

"receipt."

The clean words made Ethan do it quickly, and then he saw Barbara take a copy of his lawyer's license, agency agreement, court summons and complaint to the front desk staff, "I want to check the 'US3728480 A' this All the filing documents of the patent are helping me to retrieve the temporary application files of "Snake Game"."

Ethan was a little surprised by the domineering words, and what surprised him even more was the performance of the staff.

After reviewing the materials submitted by Barbara, the two staff immediately got up and took them upstairs to the file room on the third floor.Let them wait in the rest room for a while, and then the two went into the file room to find information for them.

About 10 minutes later, two brown paper bags appeared in front of them.

With the opening of Barbara, the patent application form of "Snake Game" filled by Ethan appeared, and then, a patent 'US46 A' consisting of eleven drawings and 3728480 pages of description was even more simple and brisk Leaped into Ethan's field of vision.

'Fuck!Can patents be viewed in this way? '

Ethan couldn't understand, but he was shocked.

Evelyn next to him gave him an elbow, and muttered in a low voice: "Don't be surprised, Barbara told me on the way here that our country's patent and copyright law stipulates that if a patent A certain patent in the office is related to the lawsuit, as long as the litigation materials are submitted to the patent office, the defendant can see the entire content of the patent according to law, and even... can get a copy.”

'! ! ! '

What kind of bullshit law is this?
Ethan suspected that his ears had misheard.

"Are you sure?" He asked doubtfully, "If that's the case, wouldn't patents be the same as a nightclub where anyone can visit?"

Evelyn curled her lips and said, "I didn't believe it just now, but Barbara told me an example."

"what?"

"Coca Cola."

Well, Ethan believed it.

Because Coca-Cola has been spraying the protection of patents by the US Patent Office, which is really rubbish.

Perhaps it was because everyone had a bad feeling, so Evelyn and Ethan didn't read the patent content.

While they were communicating, Barbara was frantically flipping through the documents in her hand.

Maybe it's because there are too many contents, but it's also possible that the technology is very complicated, so she watched it for half an hour.

Just when Ethan was wondering whether Barbara was stumped by technology, Barbara, who was still quiet, suddenly slapped the table and shouted angrily——

"Oh! Sxxt!"

"Who passed this patent?"

"Are all the reviewers a bunch of idiots?"

Barbara's roar startled Ethan.

Evelyn also showed surprise, and moved to Barbara's side, asking: "Barbara, what's the matter, is Mirov's patent not good for us?"

"Of course!" At this moment, Barbara's chest was heaving uncontrollably, pointing at the document and saying, "Look for yourselves!"

Following her guidance, Ethan and Evelyn immediately cast their gazes over, and then they saw the following two paragraphs——

[This patent relates to an apparatus and method for use with standard monochrome and color television receivers for generating, displaying, manipulating, and using symbols or geometric figures on a television screen for training simulations, game playing, and other activities 】

[The present invention is a combination of a circuit and a standard TV, the circuit is synchronized with horizontal and vertical synchronization signals, and a control unit that can generate a signal of a 'point' manipulated by a participant on a standard TV screen]

When these two paragraphs appeared, Ethan Jones frowned directly!

In the next second, he picked up the copy of the complaint and carefully checked the name of the patent!
After he found out that the official patent name of Mirowa Odyssey was 'Television gaming and training apparatus (TV game and training apparatus)', he immediately understood why the San Francisco court accepted this outrageous case!

"The patent for a home game console is not a home game console?"

"A patent for a home console is a video game and training device?"

"Is this a patent applied for by means of video signal representation?"

"WTF! How did this apply?"

At this moment, Ethan suddenly felt that his trouble seemed a little big!
Although arcade games are the art of the public, electronic arcade machines still use the display screen of the TV!

If the patent for a home game console does not frame the device as 'home use', but confirms it as 'television', then...

Who is not infringing?

　Note: ① There are ways to solve the problem of cross-state practice written in the article. The first is a serious examination, and the second is a mutual recognition agreement, that is, mutual recognition of practicing licenses between two states, but there are restrictions. ②The matter of going to the patent office to check the patent in the name of litigation is true, and Nintendo personally confirmed it. ③The patent of the home game console is indeed called a TV game and training device, and it is directly limited to the TV. As long as the game device is made of a standard TV, it is infringing. This is the money earned from the lawsuit, not counting the licensing fee), among the people sued, just the big guys include Nintendo, Sega, Emerson, and CBS.This patent seems a bit outrageous, but the reality is actually very outrageous. It was so outrageous that Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo, couldn't stand it. He went to the United States to file a lawsuit and asked the court to abolish this patent. It was mentioned in Nintendo's complaint that this patent covers The surface has surpassed the technology itself owned by the patent, because it can not only manage video game consoles made of pure circuit boards, but also video game consoles made with CPUs (as mentioned earlier, Odyssey game consoles do not have CPUs).Hiroshi Yamauchi thinks that since your product does not involve the use of the CPU, you can only manage arcade machines and mainframes with similar technology, but not home machines with CPUs. Or, you can manage home machines, but you can’t manage other things. , It's a pity that Nintendo spent millions in the lawsuit, but failed to win. In the end, the patent expired naturally in the 90s.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)