A Beam of Light in the Mist

Chapter 70 A Beam of Light in the Mist

What conflicts did you have with Milrova while working there?

Ethan could answer that question without even thinking.

"Barbara, you know about this. I really just wrote an invitation letter as requested by my superiors."

"An invitation to Nolan Bushnell."

Ethan said, "I didn't make the list of invitees, nor could I decide who should host which guests."

"Aside from the invitation, I only had one conflict with Milova, which was when I was fired. They wanted to embezzle my severance pay, and I used some strong words to defend my rights."

"What wording?" Barbara asked with interest.

"Uh...racism." Ethan took a deep breath and said, "The HR staff member who spoke to me used his words to belittle Dr. King. I pointed out his mistake and threatened to send a letter to the San Francisco civil rights organization for help."

"Dr. King? Martin Luther King Jr."

Barbara agreed as she took notes, "If the people from Milova insulted him, then your report was indeed a smart decision."

"Oh, thank you." Ethan expressed his gratitude, adding, "Then, I also said that their refusal to provide compensation is illegal, and I will apply for assistance from the American Legal Services."

Barbara nodded in approval, "Okay, it's great that you know how to use the law to protect your rights."

"Furthermore, I said their dismissal was an invasion of foreign capital led by Philips."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Barbara's hand, which was taking notes, suddenly paused.

She raised her head slightly and glanced at Ethan.

A flicker of doubt crossed her bright eyes. "You mean, your dismissal happened after Philips acquired Milrova?"

"right."

"Okay." Barbara emphasized this point. "So... you're the scapegoat chosen by the boss?"

"I think so too." Ethan nodded and said bluntly, "Actually, I've always had a feeling that the leaders are keeping me around just to fire me when it comes to accountability, so they can cover up their incompetence."

"Great job, baby!"

Ethan's words made Barbara laugh. "If you're sure you don't have any other conflicts with Milova, then I suspect that in this bureaucratic company, suing you is just a cover-up for their incompetence."

"Of course, this is just a suspicion."

"? 』

Ethan narrowed his eyes.

He felt that what Barbara said seemed to make a lot of sense.

After all, as the saying goes, if the upper beam is not straight, the lower beam will be crooked too. When the branch company leaders frantically shirk responsibility in order to keep their positions, how can the top leaders of the directly affiliated companies take the initiative to assume the responsibility of the parent company?

His creation, "Snake Game," by a former Mirova employee, truly made Mirova lose face.

While he pondered, Barbara wrote down her guesses on a piece of paper, and then said, "Now, please evaluate Nolan Bushnell and Don Valentine separately. What kind of people do you think they are?"

"So, before you were sued by Milrova, what conflicts did you have with Atari?"

Although Ethan didn't understand why Barbara felt that Atari was targeting him, he still carefully recalled what had happened in the past few months, as asked by her.

His assessment of Nolan Bushnell was—

"He is a successful and excellent businessman. He is successful because he was able to see the value of 'Snake Game' and wanted to monopolize ownership of 'Snake Game' through a long-term agency agreement from the early stages of negotiations. He is excellent because he did not give up even when he was in dire straits. Even when he could not win the lawsuit, he tried to reach a settlement with Milwaukee by gaining the sympathy of Ralph Bell."

His assessment of Don Valentine was—

"An extreme egoist who will stop at nothing to gain profit. The previous negotiations over Snake Game and last night's questioning were both expressions of his dissatisfaction on behalf of Atari."

After recording Ethan's words, Barbara nodded with a smile.

"There was definitely something wrong," she muttered, then held the sheet of paper up and pointed at Ethan's earlier assessment, saying, "Ethan, you described Don Valentine as an extreme egoist, right?"

"Yes," Ethan nodded.

He also expressed his confusion, asking, "Is there a problem, Barbara?"

"Of course!" Barbara turned to Ethan, her face radiating confidence. "Before I explain, I want to ask you something. Didn't you just tell me that Don Valentine yelled at you last night, saying he would sue you?"

"right."

"Didn't you just say that Don Valentine stated last night that they would reach a settlement with Mirova, meet all of Mirova's demands, stop selling 'Snake Game,' compensate Mirova for millions in losses as demanded, and recall all products already sold on the market, namely 'Snake Game' arcade machines and circuit boards?"

"Yeah~" Ethan confirmed that he hadn't misremembered.

"So here's the problem."

Barbara put down the papers, tapped the table, and said, "Ethan, it's probably because you don't have a specific understanding of our country's patent protection laws that you think Don Valentine's behavior is normal."

"But I want to tell you that his behavior is abnormal."

"Although our country's patent protection law mentions that when a plaintiff sues a defendant for infringing on their patent, the plaintiff has the right to demand that the defendant recall and destroy the infringing products from the market, this is very difficult to achieve in practice."

"Or perhaps..."

Barbara drew out her voice and gave Ethan a meaningful smile.

"It's basically impossible to achieve."

Barbara propped her elbows on the table and said seriously, "Regarding patent protection law, our US Code has a complete set of provisions. It states that if a plaintiff sues a defendant for patent infringement and demands that the defendant withdraw the infringing products from the market, the court can only issue an injunction if the following four conditions are met."

"The first condition is whether the plaintiff has suffered irreparable harm due to the defendant's infringement."

"This is generally impossible to achieve because the plaintiff must be plunged into bankruptcy to constitute irreparable damage. By this time, the infringing company has often become an important player in the market. In order to ensure market stability and economic development, the infringed company usually has to be sacrificed."

"The second condition is whether the monetary compensation in the case is sufficient to make up for the plaintiff's losses."

"This clause is guaranteed to be met when the plaintiff initiates a monetary claim."

"The third condition is whether the ban is in the public interest."

"The fourth condition is whether the injunction will cause reasonable harm to both parties and others."

"The last two points are actually quite complex in practice. Take Snake Game for example. If a phenomenal game is recalled and destroyed, it will cause great damage to the public's entertainment life. At the same time, it will also cause huge economic losses to the arcade businesses that purchased the machines."

"Under these circumstances, as long as Mirova doesn't go bankrupt because of the sale of 'Snake Game,' how could 'Snake Game' possibly be recalled? And since the courts are unlikely to support Mirova's request for Atari to recall 'Snake Game,' why is this so-called extreme egoist angrily stating that he will cooperate with Mirova?"

Barbara turned her head to look at Ethan.

A gleam of wisdom shone in those bright eyes.

Then, she leaned back and scoffed, "When Don Valentine said he'd get Atari to recall the Snake Game arcade machines, he was the one with the problem! Because Pong wasn't recalled!"

"If we absolutely have to compare the harm caused by copyright infringement, Pong is clearly more harmful than Snake Game!"

"Right?"

"After all he'd been through the 'Pong' lawsuit! After all he knew was that infringing products like video games didn't need to be recalled! So why did he still tell you in front of you that he'd cooperate with Mirowa and shift all the losses onto you?"

"Isn't this behavior unusual?"

"And you just said that Don Valentine is going to sue you for concealing the truth?"

"Are you trying to accuse me of commercial fraud?"

"Isn't this putting pressure on you for no reason?"

"Do you think this is something a normal person, someone you call an extreme egoist, would do?"

"If he were truly an extreme egoist, shouldn't he be urging you to resolve the issue and then continue selling the game?"

"Or perhaps..."

"His 'interests' aren't just a game?"

The barrage of questions left Ethan stunned!

Yup!

There's something seriously wrong with this!

Ethan didn’t even notice these details last night when Don Valentine yelled at him.

Firstly, Barbara confirmed that Snake Game infringed on copyrights. After this fact was established, he commissioned Atari to produce and sell Snake Game, which was indeed a way of pulling someone down from their game.

Secondly, he felt that the requirement to recall infringing products was not a problem. If his own products were infringed, he would definitely raise the corresponding claims when he filed a lawsuit, or rather, he would definitely be furious and strangle the infringer.

But now, Barbara is saying that a recall is impossible? That the law wouldn't support it?

There was definitely something wrong with Don Valentine's outburst!

Thinking of this, Ethan quickly asked, "Barbara, are you sure?"

"It's about the recall."

Ethan's question made Barbara roll her eyes. She said, "When I was studying with my teacher, he took on a case involving Playboy. The other party wanted Playboy to recall the magazine that violated the rules. During the mediation, my teacher directly used the U.S. Code in front of the judge to berate the plaintiff and the plaintiff's lawyer, and told the plaintiff's lawyer to go back to school and retake the course."

"I still remember what he said at the time. He said, 'Can your personal interests be above the interests of the public? If so, I can apply to the GF Department to have the army stationed at your doorstep!'"

"The Manhattan judge agreed with this and told the plaintiff and his lawyer not to make unreasonable demands."

"Holy crap! That's amazing!"

Ethan was shocked.

The judge told the victim not to make unreasonable demands.

What kind of defense is this?

This fact left Ethan speechless.

At that moment, he felt like he was solving a math problem.

Because he really didn't understand why Atari was putting pressure on itself.

Could it be...?

Is it because of this lawsuit that Nolan Bushnell and Don Valentine's monetization plans have run into problems?

The copyright infringement of "Snake Game" will indeed cause Atari's value to plummet.

Thinking of this, Ethan immediately said, "Barbara, do you think it's possible that Don Valentine and Nolan Bushnell's real interest is in selling Atari? Because as far as I know, Nolan Bushnell is actively promoting Atari."

Ethan felt that he had touched the truth at this moment.

But his words made Barbara sit up straight, her face full of surprise—

"What did you say?" Barbara raised her voice. "Nolan Bushnell is peddling Atari?"

"When did this happen? Where did you hear about it?"

Barbara's shock did not surprise Ethan, because he was also completely dumbfounded when he first heard the news.

“Yes, Nolan is selling Atari.” Ethan nodded. “As far as I know, this has been going on for a long time, at least before we reached an agreement, and the source of the information… well… it was a friend of mine who told me.”

"You should have met him, Steve Jobs, the friend of Woz's from the last party..."

"Find him right now!" Barbara made her decision before Ethan could finish speaking. "Quickly! Bring him to me!"

"What's wrong?" Ethan asked, puzzled. "Is there a problem with this?"

"Of course!" Barbara exclaimed. "Of course there's a problem! Nolan Bushnell wants to sell Atari? But why would any other company want to buy Atari? What's so valuable about Atari?"

"Their games are copyrighted! Their machines are copyrighted! They won't be able to release any new games for the next year!"

"Under these circumstances, Nolan Bushnell is still peddling Atari! And people are actually willing to buy it?"

"That's the biggest problem!"

"Because land and labor are worthless!"

"Imagine you're a financial tycoon who discovers that Atari's greatest value lies in its readily available alternatives. Why wouldn't you hire people yourself? Why not poach them? Why not just acquire them outright?"

"Isn't this just insane?"

"Nolan Bushnell is definitely not selling these things! They're definitely hiding something!"

"And what they're hiding is absolutely Atari's true value!"

"We have to figure this out! Only by understanding the true value of Atari can we deduce why they are so angry! Only then can we understand why they are shifting all the blame onto you instead of trying to solve the problem!"

Barbara glared at Ethan, tapped her watch, and said, "Honey, will I be able to see Steve before 2 PM?"

(End of this chapter)