Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 40 I don’t even care about my reputation anymore, so how can I not make more money?
There are three people in this small office.

A white-haired old man in a suit and tie sat behind the desk, with a stack of documents in front of him.

Two people, one fat, one thin, one short, and one tall, stood in front of the desk, their hands crossed on their abdomens, their faces tense and longing for relief.

"I want to know, is this the result of the investigation you handed to me?"

The old man closed the file gently and tapped the table with his right index finger.

The "tat-tat" sound seemed to be questioning the subordinates' hearts, and the subsequent questioning was venting the anger in their hearts -

"Have you read this report? Ethan Jones has worked at Milova for three years! But this report says that Ethan Jones should not know any of Milova's internal R&D secrets? At the same time, it is also noted that in the past three years, he should not have had any contact with our company's engineers? Do you believe this result? Do you believe it? Do you believe it? "

The sudden rise in the voice made the two middle-aged men standing opposite the old man tremble all over.

The oncoming questioning made them, who were already cautious, shake their heads like rattles.

The slightly fat man standing on the left of the old man spoke with difficulty, "Boss, we don't believe it either. But..."

“This result should be true.”

The slightly fat man looked embarrassed and said, "Boss, after receiving your order for a thorough investigation, we contacted the branch in California and asked them to write a report on Ethan Jones' work in our Miluohua over the years."

"After getting the report, we found that Ethan Jones' first job after joining our Milova was to follow the marketing department to market the Odyssey product and write guest invitations. During this process, he filled out an invitation letter belonging to Nolan Bushnell. So, after Atari created "Pong", the marketing department of the California company, or Ethan Jones's leader, in order to shirk their responsibilities, directly cut off Ethan Jones' normal work and only let him do some basic external business. They have been waiting for us to hold them accountable and fire them, so..."

"Boss, the embarrassing content in the report has appeared."

Having said this, the slightly plump man stopped.

He carefully looked at the old man and saw that he looked normal and showed no signs of anger. Then he continued, "Boss, if nothing unexpected happens, this document should be the final result, and it may also be the most realistic result. Snake Game should be Ethan Jones's own idea, and his cooperation with Atari should also be a coincidence."

“Because after receiving this report, we personally checked the work logs of the engineering design team and did not find any ideas that were the same as Snake Game. In other words, there were no ideas that were even similar to Snake Game, so…”

However, before he could finish his words, the old man slammed the table!

"Oh!!! Sxxt!!!"

He stood up angrily, stared at his subordinates with bloodshot eyes, and roared: "You mean, "Snake Game" is a clean game, right???"

"Or are you trying to tell me that Ethan Jones and Atari are a good collaboration, right???"

"I……"

The slightly plump subordinate opened his mouth slightly, not knowing how to answer.

The old man didn't give him a chance to speak, and continued to roar: "Do you think this result can satisfy me?"

“Or in other words, can this result be accepted by the board of directors?”

“Will it be accepted by our parent company?”

"You have to know that we finally managed to suppress Atari! We finally managed to strangle their development of new games! We just proved to the market that we, Mirowa, are not to be trifled with! Not everyone can bully us!"

"and then?"

“Nolan Bushnell gets another break by representing a new game?”

“More importantly, this new game was made by our former employees?”

"If all this is okay, then what are we? Clowns?"

Spit was flying all over the sky.

A white-haired old man with a ferocious face.

The bulging veins on his neck looked like the roots of an old tree, and the red cheeks looked like surging blood pressure.

After taking a breath, he sighed and said, "Do you know? After the Los Angeles Times reported on Snake Game, the head of our parent company called me and asked why Ethan Jones, the inventor of Snake Game, was our former employee? Why did he have no achievements in the past three years? And why did he create a classic right after leaving MILOWA?"

"He also asked me why, three years ago, Ethan Jones, who had just joined the company, had contributed to the birth of Atari? And three years later, just after being fired by us, he saved Atari from falling into hell?"

"He doesn't understand how all this happened. He doesn't believe that all this is a coincidence, because even Hollywood screenwriters don't dare to write such a plot, so... do you understand what I mean?"

Although the old man's voice had calmed down, the two subordinates standing in front of him felt a stronger sense of oppression.

They lowered their eyes and dared not look up.

But at the same time, they also know clearly what the boss wants to do.

It's nothing more than trying to find the problem and solve it.

The former, finding the problem, that's Ethan Jones.

After being fired by Milova, this guy directly invented a popular game. This fact surprised Milova so much that he even suspected that Ethan Jones had plagiarized their internal ideas.

There's nothing we can do about it. Who made them all suffer from PTSD due to the copying?

There are still more than twenty rights protection lawsuits to be fought, and as a result, a former employee who was fired not long ago came up with a popular game. Anyone would think there is a problem.

If that were all, it would be fine, because after their investigation, "Snake Game" has nothing to do with them, Mirohua, it was purely an accident.

However, the publisher of "Snake Game" forced them to continue investigating this matter which had no problem.

Because the collaboration between Ethan Jones and Atari is such a coincidence!

It's such a coincidence that it makes people wonder if this is a deliberate arrangement by someone!
You see, I fired my employee and he came up with a hit game right after I fired him; I defeated my competitor and he released a hit game right after that; more importantly, these two guys worked together... When all these outrageous things come together, who would believe you if you say there is no problem?
But the problem is that after their investigation, they really didn't find any clues.

This kind of result really makes things very difficult.

Thinking of this, the slightly plump man and the thin colleague next to him looked at each other.

The tall and thin man took a deep breath and said, "Boss, we understand what you mean, but it is really difficult to let Ethan Jones take the responsibility for our mismanagement."

"For example, we can suspect that Ethan Jones and Atari had a premeditated alliance, but no one would believe this, including ourselves. After all, when Odyssey was launched, almost everyone was not optimistic about the home game console product. Whether it was us, IBM, or Motorola, they all felt that home game consoles and video games were not entertainment projects that the public could afford."

"So, even if we insist that Ethan Jones is a spy planted by Nolan Bushnell in our Mirowa, because after Ethan Jones was fired by us, he gave his newly invented game to Atari for distribution... I think even if the court really accepts our case, after going to court, the judge and jury will think we are crazy."

Having said that, the tall and thin man looked at his leader nervously.

The white-haired old man was silent for a moment, then nodded, "You are right."

The two subordinates breathed a sigh of relief at the leader's understanding.

But at the same time, the old man also said: "I know that Ethan Jones may really be fine, but we must make him have problems now. Because these things are too coincidental, the coincidental company no longer believes us. Or, the board of directors has already doubted that the failure of Odyssey is not due to problems with the product itself, but to problems with our promotion method and internal management."

"If we had no problems, then why was Atari able to succeed after plagiarizing the idea? And why was his idea also successful after we fired an employee?"

"If this kind of thing only happens once, I can report it to the board and say it was an accident, but after two or three times, they no longer believe it is an accident and only think it is inevitable."

"So, in order to let the board of directors, the leaders of the parent company know that there is no problem with us, then Ethan Jones... must have a problem. This is not a question of truth, but a question of how to keep our jobs."

"I think you should understand this, right?"

The old man's question made the two people present look nervous.

The office fell silent again.

The strange silence seemed to be a serious psychological struggle, but the deep breath after a moment was the best proof that he had come up with an idea.

The slightly fat guy looked at the old man and said, "Boss, I want to ask you something."

"You said."

"What step do we need to take to prove that we have no problems? Is it to successfully initiate a lawsuit, successfully win the case, or let the other party take the initiative to propose a settlement?"

The question made the old man think for a while, and then he said, "Although I know the possibility of winning the lawsuit is almost zero, if we want to completely wash away the board's suspicion of us, we must win the lawsuit."

"Okay, Boss. I understand." The fat man nodded and said, "Then we can only sue Ethan Jones and Atari for infringing our patents."

'? ' The old man narrowed his eyes and asked, "They infringed our patent? When did it happen?"

The fat man said with a serious face, "As long as we are willing to sue, they can infringe our rights at any time."

These words made the old man frown, because he didn't know what the fat man was talking about.

But the next second, the tall and thin man spoke up, saying in a lost voice, "Are you planning to sue him using the patent 8480 that Sanders Industries licensed to us?"

"If we do that, our reputation will be ruined!"

"So what?" The fat man didn't care. "From the perspective of that patent, Ethan Jones and Atari are infringing on the patent!"

"You have to understand that our goal now is not to find the truth, but to clear the board's suspicion of us."

"In this case, as long as the lawsuit is successful, what does it matter if you lose a little reputation?"

"You..." The thin man's Adam's apple moved, and he wanted to say something.

But when the words came to my lips, no sound came out.

The conversation between the fat and thin people made the old man frown.

Although he didn't understand, it didn't matter, because the subordinate's firm words were the answer he wanted.

"Very good." The old man, who had been serious all day, finally showed some joy on his face. "I think you already have a solution."

"Then, I'll leave this matter to you guys."

"No problem." The fat man nodded. "Boss, don't worry. I will communicate with the legal department and file a lawsuit against them by September this year at the latest. You will hear good news in a month at most."

The old man liked the news that his subordinates were sure of victory, but he was also a little confused.

"September? It's June now, why is there such a long gap?"

The leader's curiosity made the fat man laugh, "Boss, it's very simple, because Snake Game is not selling well enough, we have to wait until it sells all over the world, only in this way can we maximize our profits."

"When we have all given up our reputations, it's not too much to make a little more money, right?"

In the dim office, the fat man's facial features were a little blurry.

But the half-joking words made the old man nod happily, "Not too much."

The old man raised his lips slightly, "Even... it's correct."

Thanks to [book friend 20190611195126616] for the reward of 100 Qidian coins.

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(End of this chapter)