Rebirth of the Tech Madman

Chapter 102 Usher in the first patent war

Tang Huan did not expect that on the opposite side of the United States across the Pacific, he would meet AMD’s founder Sanders and easily develop it into an infernal affairs that may play a certain role in checks and balances.

AMD and Sharp Semiconductor rank almost the same in the global semiconductor industry, out of ten, but within twenty. Therefore, for Zheru, a big customer, the motivation to serve is very strong. The utilitarian and realistic Sanders naturally does not care that it may be due to whistleblowing. The point of falling.

Tang Huantuu’s “three-in-two” choice for the three Japanese semiconductor companies who insisted on staying was very cold. In the end, the second child, Toshiba, was squeezed out of the game by the third and more flexible negotiators, Hitachi and Fujitsu, and had to feel sad. Leave.

The reason why these four companies can have the last laugh is that they can recognize their position and work pragmatically. To put it bluntly, it is both capable and interesting.

For the details of the order, Tang Huan naturally doesn’t need to handle it himself. He intends to take this opportunity to find out with the four companies about their interest in CPUs or microcontrollers, and whether they have plans to enter the field.

Unexpectedly, there was a message from Philosopher America that Tang Huan had to fly back to deal with it, and even his plan to go to Xiangjiang to prepare to visit the mainland was shelved.

The hot sale of electronic game consoles at Christmas has naturally attracted all kinds of envy, envy, and hatred, especially the industry peers. Seeing a lot of banknotes flow into the pockets of competitors, their eyes are red, and the launch of the world’s first Taiwan’s commercial TV game console-Odyssey 1st generation Mirova Company, its Odyssey 2nd generation fell short when fighting with the Cassidy and Atari 2600. The mentality can only be described as imbalance.

So, Milova sued EA for patent infringement on the Cassidy game console.

Under the leadership of Tang Huan, Zheru’s products are all self-reliant and developed from scratch. The employees never thought that their work results would be suspected of technical plagiarism. In addition, the company was established less than a year ago. This is the first time I have encountered this kind of thing, and it is inevitable that I will be hurriedly dealt with out of anger.

Under this situation, the big boss Tang Huan naturally wanted to take the place in person to stabilize the military spirit. He was very upset about this, but he was helpless.

In this way, on the last day of 1979, Tang Huan left for the United States from Treasure Island.

Very coincidentally, Tang Huan met Lin Qingxian and her mother after arriving at the airport. Seeing that he was carrying things with him, he wanted to travel together.

After saying hello, Lin Qingxian confirmed Tang Huan’s guess that the mother and daughter are going to San Francisco to meet their father, brother, and sister who had settled there earlier.

Mother Lin once again thanked Tang Huan for his help to the Lin family in the United States. With such a relationship, Tang Huan and the old lady had a lot of topics, and the conversation atmosphere was very pleasant.

But when I passed the customs, there was a problem. Lin Mu actually took 20,000 U.S. dollars in cash with him. In violation of relevant regulations, the passport was directly detained.

Lin Qingxia begged, even at the expense of revealing his celebrity status as an endorsement, but it still didn’t work.

Looking at Lin Qingxian’s eyes for help, Tang Huan scratched his head, sighed helplessly, and honestly said: “I can’t do anything about this situation, I’m really sorry.”

Seeing this scene, Lin Qingxia also died, pulling up the suitcase to give up the trip.

Unexpectedly, Mother Lin was very assertive and insisted on not allowing her daughter to accompany her. Lin Qingxian certainly disagreed. After arguing for a while, Mother Lin sullenly reprimanded in a low voice. Lin Qingxian blushed and agreed. Come down.

Although Tang Huan could not solve this dilemma, he could call and use the resources in his hand to help Lin Mu understand the trouble as soon as possible according to the normal procedure, and Lin Qingxian was relieved.

Mother Lin’s begging sounds echoed in his ears, and Tang Huan passed the inspection with Lin Qingxian, who was extremely depressed, and boarded the plane.

After some comforting Lin Qingxia, Tang Huan turned his mind back to the lawsuit between EA and Mi Luohua.

In the initial stage of development of general technology companies, all R&D projects can only start from scratch, which can be called “stage 0”.

In the process from 0 to 1, R&D requires continuous experimentation and continuous improvement from mistakes. The cost and time spent are often very huge. It is obvious that the Atari 2600 R&D process cost 100 million US dollars. example.

Naturally, Tang Huan won’t be so troublesome. His Xiaobawang game console directly borrowed from the Nintendo FC in 1983. Its hardware architecture is not very advanced. It is the current level of technology. The success lies in the perfect design, mature technology, and software and hardware collocation. Reasonable and fully utilize the resources of CPU and memory.

Therefore, even if Tang Huan has to pay the patent fee, it is still to Nintendo, but the problem is that the red and white phones in this time and space should not even show up the design. Putting the check in front of Yamauchi, it is estimated that the other party will be angry, think it is. It’s here to buy.

However, if you have to be more authentic and carry out rigorous investigations, it is not unreasonable that Mi Luohua sued the Xiaobawang game console for patent infringement. The creativity did come from them. In the early 1970s, they applied for a patent-“TelevisionGamingandTrainingApparatus”, that is, television games and Training device, but its contribution to the electronic game machine is only that.

The first-generation video game console Mirova Odyssey with the model 1TL200 was listed in September 1972, priced at $100, and sold 130,000 units on Christmas Day. Until the first model was discontinued in 1975, a total of 330,000 mainframes were sold for the 1TL200.

It is based on this fact that Milova sued EA so rightly.

In 1974, Atari, under Bushnell’s power, was brought to court by Mirova because of the popular arcade game Pong. In the end, Atari was sentenced to pay US$700,000 in copyright.

In the original time and space, in the following ten years, Mirova sued more than a dozen companies, including Activision, and received a total of about 100 million US dollars in compensation, while the home game console manufacturer had to pay Mirova. The state of the grant money lasted until the patent right expired in the early 1990s.

Thinking of this, Tang Huan couldn’t help but rubbed his eyebrows.

When he was upset about being slaughtered by someone else, Tang Huan felt his shoulder sink. He turned to look and saw Lin Qingxian who had fallen asleep leaning over.

Even in her sleep, Lin Damei still frowned, she seemed to think of something unhappy, her expression arousing affection.

Tang Huan sighed silently. There may be a real balance in this world. In the past few years, Lin Qingxian was very popular and had a smooth wind, so he had to suffer some setbacks.

Tang Huan adjusted his body to make Lin Qingxian sleep more comfortably. He closed his eyes and rested himself, recharging his energy for the first patent battle.

……

After the flight arrived in San Francisco, Tang Huan personally sent Lin Qingxia to his family who had been waiting for a long time.

Did not see Mother Lin, everyone in the Lin family could not help being surprised and disappointed. Tang Huan helped Lin Qingxian explain and comforted them. There will be no trouble, and the family should be reunited soon.

After reassuring, sister Lin Lixian quickly told her sister Lin Qingxian, “Not long ago, Qin Han came to the United States and thought that he could find you in San Francisco. I told him that you were in Hawaii, and he immediately bought a plane ticket to Hawaii. , Have you met?”

“No.” Lin Qingxian shook her head in a daze.

“That means there is no destiny. If God’s will is like this, you should stop worrying about yourself.” Lin Lixia comforted her sister, “Yes, you can see that this Tang Huan is very good to you, and he is also a talent. It’s better to develop. Relationship.”

Lin Qingxia quickly glanced at Tang Huan who was sitting in the luxury business car sent by the philosophers to greet him. He hit his sister and scolded in shame: “Little kid, don’t talk nonsense.”

“I’m not young.” Lin Lixian pursed her lips in dissatisfaction.

Unfortunately, Tang Huan, who has always good ears, heard the conversation between the two sisters intermittently, and he couldn’t help showing a playful smile. This famous love triangle is interesting, and it will be even more exciting after he gets in.

After sitting down, Tang Huan waved to everyone in the Lin family and told the driver to drive. He soon arrived at Cupertino’s office. Hawkins and Chambers had already waited there with a few important middle-level demeanors.

“Although the patent lawsuit this time came suddenly, it is not a bad thing.” After Tang Huan made a cup of tea for himself, he started talking about the official business slowly.

“For high-tech companies like ours, new technological achievements appear every week, and dealing with patents has long been commonplace. Since patents can protect us, they can also protect others. There is no need to panic.”

Having said that, Tang Huan opened the lid of the cup and blew it lightly. The fragrance of tea was refreshing.

“Zheru had only hired a few legal advisers before. It happened to take advantage of this opportunity to set up the legal department and improve our company structure.” Tang Huan gave instructions.

The big boss’s Yun Danfengqing is not generally calm and stable. In fact, since he stepped into the office, everyone was unconsciously infected by his self-confidence and relaxed.

Hawkins gave a light cough, “The lawyer said that Mirova is currently in a favorable position, and the royalties will inevitably be paid to them.”

Tang Huan nodded, “Let’s also talk about character, after all, people hold the first patent in their hands But giving more and less, how to give, when to give, is debatable. Yes, and I think Mirova definitely doesn’t just want to get a sum of money. They also hope to use this method to snipe the development momentum of our game console business.”

Looking over his men one by one, Tang Huan slowly said: “As a counterattack, I want to turn this lawsuit into a disguised marketing campaign to let everyone know how good the Cassidy game console is technically. You make a plan to build momentum. , And also ask our public relations company McKinsey for guidance.”

The boss’s thinking jumped too much, and a group of people were silent for a long time before digesting the information.

“In this way, this lawsuit has to be prepared for a protracted battle, but we lack strong enough countermeasures. The Odyssey generation that came out a few years ago is indeed the first video game console.” Hawkins said worriedly.

Tang Huan smiled slightly. In 1985, Nintendo sued Mirova and pointed out that the first video game, or video game, should be William Higinbotham’s “TennisforTwo” or “Double Tennis” in 1958. Therefore, he asked the court to abolish the Odyssey. Patents.

Although in the end the judge believed that “Double Tennis” did not use video signals and therefore could not be regarded as a “video game”. Nintendo lost the lawsuit, but it was enough for a period of time.

Tang Huan said about this plan, everyone couldn’t help but smile, and the boss was already ready to deal with it.

However, the boss even knows such trivial things decades ago, it is too well-known and well-remembered.