The Worst Outcome

Chapter 67 The Worst Outcome

During Barbara's silence, Ethan also thought about the issues behind the patent.

When he starts using the guise of "protecting scientific research" to try and become a beneficiary of MOS 6502, true scientists will certainly enjoy better legal protection, or rather, artificial protection, before him.

"so--"

Ethan took a deep breath and said with a smile, "Infringement, huh?"

Since the matter was already settled, Ethan was no longer angry.

This wasn't because he was magnanimous, but because he knew that getting angry was useless.

The most important thing to do now is to solve the problem.

Of course, before that, he had one more question in his mind: "Ms. Barbara, could you please help me with one more thing?"

"Go ahead," Barbara opened her eyes and answered readily, "If I have the connections, I'll definitely ask for you."

"It was indeed due to my lack of knowledge in this matter, and I will try my best to make up for my mistake."

"Oh Barbara, let's not talk about such pointless things anymore." Ethan shook his head with a smile and said, "We've been the ones troubling you all this time. You've been a great help to us, and we should be thanking you."

Before she finished speaking, Evelyn also came over, opened her arms, and gave her a hug like a koala.

With her arm around the girl's waist and stroking her vest, Barbara sighed, "Thank you."

Then, she raised her eyebrows at Ethan, and after receiving the signal that she was being asked, Ethan also spoke his mind.

"Professor Barbara, if Milrohua's patent is so powerful, why did they waste so much time on the infringement issue of 'Pong'? 'Pong' is also a game that uses a television screen to generate, display, manipulate, and use symbols or geometric shapes."

"If Mirova can use this patent to sue us, why couldn't they just use this patent to sue Atari in the first place?"

That's right!

This is what puzzled Ethan the most!

If Ralph Bell's patent is really that amazing, then why is Atari still alive today?

Why didn't we just strangle him sooner?

That way everyone will know that your patent is incredibly powerful!

As soon as the question arose, Barbara smiled and pointed to the copy of the patent on the table, indicating that Ethan should look at it himself.

After Ethan picked it up, Barbara said, "Turn to the page with the patent holders and tell me what you see."

Ethan glanced at it twice, then his brows furrowed immediately. "The patent officially took effect on April 17, 1973?"

"Patent inventor: Ralph Henry Bell; Patent owner: Sanders Associates?"

"Yeah~"

Ethan's words made Barbara shake her head with a wry smile.

"Your question is also something I'm curious about. I originally thought there might be a loophole here, so I just asked the people at the patent office, and they said that this patent does not belong to Milrova, but to a company called Sanders."

"Because Ralph Bell was Sanders' technical director when he invented the 'Brown Box,' which was the predecessor of the Milova Odyssey, and Sanders' funds were used throughout the research and development process, the name of Sanders Corporation was filled in the owner column in accordance with the research and development regulations when registering the patent."

"Milowa initially only obtained the production, sales, and marketing rights for the 'brown box,' and then they filed a series of patent applications based on these rights, such as the name, appearance, internal technology, and circuit board of the Odyssey host. Their patents were all for specific products."

"Therefore, when Atari started copying them in 73, Mirova couldn't directly sue based on its product patents, because from a product protection perspective, the arcade game 'Pong' didn't infringe on the rights of the 'Mirova Odyssey' home console. And Mirova didn't initially intend to obtain these patent licenses from Sanders. It wasn't until the arcade industry became increasingly popular and they needed to resort to forceful legal action that they communicated with Sanders, obtained all the patents, and after that, they only needed to pay Sanders licensing fees."

"..."

Fine.

Ethan was very convinced by this reason.

When so many coincidences come together, it's truly outrageous, like an outrageous lottery number opening the door to an outrageous one!

"Okay, okay, I understand."

Ethan nodded and said, "If that's the case, then we concede."

"So many unexpected events happening at the same time, this is really... MFxxk!"

After cursing, Ethan wondered what he should do next.

He doesn't want to go to court if he can.

If an out-of-court settlement is possible, then it should be settled out of court, because litigation is troublesome.

When Ethan asked what was on his mind, Barbara said that things might not be resolved so quickly.

Because the United States has a complete litigation process, after the defendant receives the complaint, he/she needs to file a response within a certain period of time. In California, this period is thirty days. Then, the next stage called the disclosure of evidence will begin. In this stage, the lawyers of both sides will exchange the evidence they have collected. Once all the evidence has been presented, the case is usually resolved.

To save judicial resources, courts actually encourage settlements. So after the evidence disclosure stage, both parties can decide whether to proceed to the settlement stage or the litigation stage. If the defendant meets all the plaintiff's demands, the court will definitely not hold a hearing. Only when the settlement is invalid and the court mediation is also invalid will the final trial stage begin.

Of course, if it were Milrohua's own lawyers, their core objective would definitely be to make money.

The more compensation the company receives, the more secure their position within the company becomes, and the more commission they can earn from the business.

After all, the biggest benefit of patents that can effectively control an industry is making money.

But what about other law firms—

"They are also after money, but they are not after compensation; they are after the legal fees that Milrohua promised."

Barbara said, "In the lawsuit, Mirova is demanding that you pay one million dollars in damages and cease the infringement."

"The former basically means all the profits you made from 'Snake Game,' right? The latter means you have to stop selling 'Snake Game' in the United States, or rather, you can no longer sell it through standard television."

"The first one is easy to do, but I don't even need to ask to know that you wouldn't agree to the second one."

"So, I still want to say, Ethan, please consider whether you have offended Mirova? Because normally, when patent infringement occurs, the first thing a commercial company should do is send a lawyer's letter to the infringer. Only if the infringer does not stop infringing will a lawsuit be filed. And in litigation, the company's lawyers usually handle the issues, and it is rare to involve external law firms..."

"Oh, right, there's one more thing. Atari is also an infringer, so why isn't their name on the lawsuit? You need to look into this carefully, because if there are two cases, that would be the worst-case scenario..."

"Because the amount you'll have to pay might not just be one million, but much more."

Barbara's words made Ethan frown.

He genuinely didn't understand what he had done to offend Milova!

Did he ask for 2N+1 when he was initially fired?

Or did they send Nolan Bushnell an invitation to Odyssey?

If Mirova is making a big deal out of these things, then he's really speechless!

The first thing he did was fight for his legal rights, while the second thing really had nothing to do with him!

After thinking for a long time, Ethan still couldn't come up with a solution.

Seeing that it was getting late, Barbara suggested that they go home first and think about it slowly.

Anyway, the defense can be submitted within 30 days. In other words, as long as they can figure out the issues before October 15th, they might be able to drag the case into a settlement. Otherwise... they'll have to pray to God that Milrohua hasn't offered any incentives to the lawyers at those law firms. For example, how much money could a lawyer get if they forced Ethan Jones to stop selling "Snake Game" across the United States?

Because such clauses would make those lawyers watch them like vultures.

…………

At 8 p.m. that evening, the brand-new Dino 246 GTS pulled up in front of Evelyn's house.

The red, streamlined body reflected a pale pink glow under the moonlight, like a bedside lamp, warm and gentle.

Ethan, sitting in the car, looked at Evelyn apologetically and said, "I'm sorry... this is my fault. I'll try to find out why."

"Alright~" Evelyn waved her hand and said, "What did you tell Barbara before? You told her not to take the blame, right? I'm giving you the same advice now: don't take the blame either, because this wasn't caused by you."

"I created 'Snake Game,' and I drew the circuit diagrams, so I know exactly how outrageous this patent is."

"But there's nothing we can do, right?"

"As Professor Vinton said, Professor Ralph Bell may not be as famous in the field as Principal Fred Terman, but those who do scientific research know just how terrifying his inventive ability is."

"The federal patent office may not understand technology, but they do understand communication."

"So it's normal for us to fail. It's not because of their ignorance, but because of our powerlessness."

"Let's just say..."

"Let's learn a lesson by paying for it."

Evelyn unbuckled her seatbelt, opened her arms, and smiled, saying, "Want a hug?"

These words made Ethan laugh, and without hesitation, he went straight to meet them.

"Thanks."

He said softly.

However, just as Ethan was resigned to his fate and decided to lose most of his profits from *Snake Game*, before he even stepped inside his house, a series of urgent phone calls pierced his ears. He went inside, picked up the phone, and a torrent of roars erupted from him—

"Ethan Jones!!!"

"Where the hell have you been?!"

"I've been calling you all day and no one's answering!!!"

"Your 'Snake Game' is an infringing product???"

"Oh my god! The lawsuit from Milrova has been delivered to me!!!"

"They also sued Midway Games and Chicago Coin in court!!!"

"Dxxm! Do you realize that your actions are costing us a lot of money!!!"

"You need to explain this to me clearly! I'm at the company right now! Get here immediately!!!"

"..."

The rapid, machine-gun-like speech and the sudden busy tone of the phone made Ethan shake his head in dismay.

He shook the copy of the indictment in his hand and looked at it carefully. Indeed, Atari's name was not listed in the defendant's column.

"Fine, the worst-case scenario."

Ethan sighed, remembering what Barbara had just said.

(End of this chapter)