Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 65 Big trouble!

After Ethan and Evelyn sat down in the office, Barbara explained why Milohua wanted to go to court.

"In our country, there is a Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and Rule 11 of the Rules states that when a plaintiff submits a complaint to the court, the receptionist needs to review the format of the complaint, which includes the signature of the plaintiff or the plaintiff's attorney, and needs to ensure that the attorney has the qualification to practice law in the place where the lawsuit occurs."

"Because each state in our country has its own laws, if a lawyer who has obtained a license to practice in California represents a case in New York, he or she 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 client, the federal government requires the court to review the lawyer's qualifications."

“Although this article protects the interests of the parties involved, it also prevents some companies that clearly have legal affairs from using their own lawyers to sue, which unnecessarily increases a lot of litigation costs.”

"However, MILO is not actually affected by this clause because they were originally a California company. They moved their headquarters only after Philips proposed the acquisition last year. In this case, their lawyers actually have California practice licenses. For example, when MILO was in court with Atari, MILO sued Atari directly."

"And now, instead of letting the company's lawyers sue you directly, they commissioned an external law firm to give benefits to those litigants. This practice can only prove one thing: they don't care about compensation."

"That's why I said you will probably have to go to court. After all, it's not easy to take a high-dollar case like rights protection. If it's a risk agency, they can charge even more money."

At this point, Barbara burst into laughter. "So, I suggest you think about whether you have offended Mi Luohua in some way, causing a company to prefer giving money to the law firm rather than using its own lawyers."

"Especially you, Ethan. You are a former employee of Milohua. I think Milohua is coming for you."

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

He didn't expect that in a lawsuit, there are so many rules just for choosing a lawyer?

The point is, can Barbara analyze to some extent the plaintiff's starting point for filing the lawsuit just by looking at the plaintiff's assignment of counsel?

This is crazy——

He is worthy of the name of a mage!
While Ethan was stunned, Evelyn, who had been depressed for a long time, also found an outlet to vent.

"Oh Barbara! You are so right! We also think that Milohua is targeting us on purpose!"

"Look, this is what's written in the complaint. Milova said that our Snake Game infringed Milova Odyssey's patent. This is obviously impossible, right? Because electronic games cannot infringe on the patents of game consoles!"

"To put it simply, video games are software! And home consoles are hardware!"

"Software infringes on hardware patents? What kind of person could come up with this idea?"

"Barbara, I've discovered that what you said before is really right! Those people in the court don't understand technology at all!"

Barbara smiled and nodded as she listened to the endless complaints.

"Oh Evelyn, don't get excited, this should be a small matter."

She took the indictment while comforting Evelyn.

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

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

At first, Barbara was smiling.

But as she continued to flip through the pages, dark clouds began to appear on her face, making her frown.

She flipped through seven or eight pages of paper for a full twenty minutes. When she raised her head again, doubt flickered in her clear eyes.

This situation made Ethan's heart skip a beat.

"Teacher Barbara, have we really infringed your rights?" he asked cautiously.

Ethan’s words made Evelin purse her lips, her eyes filled with curiosity.

Under their gaze, Barbara put down the copy of the indictment in her hand, stood up, and rummaged through the file cabinet behind her. At the same time, she asked, "Ethan, how did you solve the copyright issue of Snake Game?"

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

The next second, he immediately realized something was wrong.

"Teacher Barbara, do you mean that our temporary patent conflicts with theirs?"

As soon as he said this, he felt that his guess was wrong.

"That's not right, we make arcade machines, and they make home game consoles!"

"I remember you said before that the two cannot be used interchangeably? Is it because the MILO Odyssey is a home game console that MILO was unable to sue Atari for product infringement in the first place and use patents to drag "Pong" into the copyright lawsuit?"

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

“Evelyn, help me go to the office next door to get four agency agreements. I want to sign an agency contract with you. I will tell you the specific reasons later. What we need to do now is to go to the Patent Office to look at their Odyssey patent filing!”

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

Because before this, when they consulted Barbara on legal issues, Barbara had never looked as serious as she did now.

But at the same time, Ethan knew that now was not the time to ask, so he returned home as Barbara requested, found the receipt of the provisional patent application for "Snake Game", and then hurried to the Patent Office in San Jose.

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

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

"receipt."

Ethan hurriedly followed the instructions given by Barbara, who then handed her lawyer's license, agency agreement, court summons and copy of the complaint to the front desk staff. "I want to check all the filing documents for the patent 'US3728480 A', and help me retrieve the provisional application file for 'Snake Game'."

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

After checking the information Barbara submitted, the two staff members got up and took them upstairs to the archives room on the third floor. They asked them to wait in the rest room for a while, and then they went into the archives room to find information for them.

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

As Barbara opened it, the patent application form for "Snake Game" filled out by Ethan himself appeared. Then, a patent 'US3728480 A' consisting of eleven drawings and forty-six pages of description simply and briskly jumped into Ethan's field of vision.

"What the hell! Is it possible to look at patents like this?"

Ethan couldn't understand it, but he was shocked.

Evelyn, who was standing beside him, nudged him with her elbow and muttered, "Don't be surprised. Barbara told me on the way here that our country's patent and copyright law stipulates that if a patent in the Patent Office is related to a lawsuit, as long as the lawsuit materials are submitted to the Patent Office, the defendant can legally see the entire content of the patent, and even... get a copy."

'! ! ! '

What kind of bullshit law is this?
Ethan suspected that he had heard it wrongly.

"Are you sure?" He asked doubtfully, "If that's the case, then patents are just like nightclubs, anyone can go there, right?"

And 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 criticizing the U.S. Patent Office for its poor patent protection.

Perhaps because everyone had a bad feeling, neither Evelyn nor Ethan looked at the contents of the patent.

While they were talking, Barbara was frantically flipping through the documents in her hands.

Perhaps it was because there was too much content, or perhaps it was because the technology was complicated, so she watched it there for a full half hour.

Just as Ethan was wondering if Barbara was stumped by the technology, Barbara, who had been quiet, suddenly slammed the table and shouted angrily -

"Oh! Sxxt!"

“Who approved this patent?”

"Are all the reviewers a bunch of idiots?"

Barbara's roar startled Ethan.

Evelin also looked surprised, and came to Barbara’s side and asked, “Barbara, what’s wrong, is Mirohua’s patent disadvantageous to us?”

"Of course!" Barbara's chest was heaving at this moment. She pointed at the document and said, "Look for yourselves!"

Following her instructions, Ethan and Evelyn immediately turned their gazes over, and then they saw these two paragraphs of text -

[This patent relates to an apparatus and method for use with standard monochrome and color television receivers to generate, display, manipulate and use symbols or geometric figures on a television screen for training simulations, game play and other activities]

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

When these two paragraphs of text appeared, Ethan Jones frowned immediately!

The next second, he picked up a copy of the complaint and carefully checked the name of the patent!
When he found out that the official patent name of MILO Odyssey was 'Television gaming and training apparatus', he instantly understood why the San Francisco court accepted this outrageous case!

“A patent for a home game console is not a home game console?”

"The patent for the home game console is for video games and training devices?"

"Is this a patent application for a method of displaying video signals?"

"WTF! How do you apply for this?"

At this moment, Ethan suddenly felt that his trouble seemed to be a little big!
Although arcade games are public art, electronic arcade machines still use television screens!

If the patent for a home game console does not frame the device as being used at home, but confirms it as being used on a television, then...

Who is not infringing on the rights of others?

Note: ① The problem of practicing across states mentioned in the article can be solved. The first is a formal examination, and the second is a mutual recognition agreement, that is, the two states recognize each other's practice licenses, but there are restrictions. ② It is true that Nintendo went to the Patent Office to check the patent in the name of litigation, and it was confirmed by Nintendo itself. ③ The patent for home game consoles is indeed called TV games and training devices, and the TV is directly used as a limitation. As long as the game device is made using a standard TV, it is infringing. This is also the key to Milova's ability to make 100 million yuan by litigation (this is the money earned from litigation, not including licensing fees). Among those sued, there are big names such as Nintendo, Sega, Emerson, and CBS. This patent seems a bit outrageous, but the reality is actually very outrageous, so outrageous that Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi could not stand it, and went to the United States to file a lawsuit, asking the court to abolish the patent. In Nintendo's complaint, it was mentioned that the coverage of this patent has exceeded the technology owned by the patent itself, because it can not only control TV game consoles made of pure circuit boards, but also TV game consoles made with CPUs (as mentioned earlier, the Odyssey game console does not have a CPU). Hiroshi Yamauchi felt that since your product does not involve the use of CPUs, then it can only control arcades and consoles with similar technologies, not home consoles with CPUs, or, you can control home consoles, but you can't control other things. Unfortunately, Nintendo spent millions on the lawsuit and did not win. In the end, the patent expired naturally in the 1990s.

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(End of this chapter)