Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 66 Crouching Dragon and Phoenix Chick
After checking the patent that Milohua mentioned and finding the crux of the problem, Barbara asked the staff of the Patent Office to make a copy for her, and then asked Ethan and Evelyn to go home with her.

Since it was lunchtime, Ethan went to McDonald's on the way back and packed three meals.

Unfortunately, he and Evelyn had no appetite and couldn't eat at all, and Barbara...

After returning home, she kept making phone calls there.

Although Ethan didn't lean over to listen, Barbara didn't mean to hide it. From her words, Ethan could find that Barbara had asked some questions to her friends at the Federal Patent Office, exchanged opinions with her colleagues, and talked to her teacher. But these requests for help couldn't make Ethan happy, because the cold and emotionless words, the rapid speed of speech like a storm, all proved one thing - they might have really infringed.

"Oh! Sxxt!"

Thinking of this, Ethan bent his body slightly, held his head with both hands, and looked conflicted.

Because he simply couldn't understand why the patent for the world's first commercial home game console was not for a home game console, but for a TV game and training device?
What the hell is this!
If the patent is directed at home game consoles, it is just a monopoly in an industry. But when the patent is directed at video games, who in the world can bypass this patent?
Computer games?
Because the monitor isn't a standard TV?

Oh! Fxxk!

Ethan suddenly remembered that in his memory, in his previous life, after the collapse of Atari, the United States did have a long period of vacuum in gaming equipment. No matter whether it was small gaming companies or large companies like Activision and EA, they all made computer games!
Is it possible...

'Is it because of this patent? That allows Milova to sustainably exploit the resources?'

"What the hell! Can a patent strangle an entire industry?"

"Fuck! How can there be such a perverted patent in the world!"

"Oh! Fxxk! Do all those examiners at the patent office eat shit?"

Ethan suddenly stood up, spreading his hands, and panted angrily, "How did this patent pass?"

“Didn’t they find it weird when they were reviewing it?”

"Why does a patent that describes a technology protect not the technology itself but the visual channel through which the technology is presented? This, this, this... don't these people in the patent office find this outrageous?"

Ethan's lips trembled as he spoke.

I'm not angry!

There is no way! Who made this patent so outrageous?

"Oh Ethan - don't be angry - although this patent seems a bit excessive, from another perspective, this matter is actually very beneficial to us, isn't it?"

Looking at her blushing brother, Evelin raised her right hand and patted his back repeatedly, coaxing him as if stroking his hair: "The stricter the patent protection law is, the more beneficial it is for us, because we are going to be in technology after all..."

"If you really want to do business, then we can't run our own company with other people's technology, right?"

Ethan restrained himself a lot after hearing his sister’s words. After taking a few deep breaths, he also focused his attention on Evelin. “But now, if there is no problem with this patent, then we are really infringing—”

The bright eyes were filled with worry.

Although Evelin knew that what Ethan said was probably true, and this matter was probably already confirmed, she still smiled and said, “Oh Ethan, don’t be so pessimistic. Things haven’t come to that point yet, right? What if Barbara…”

However, before she could finish her words, Barbara's voice appeared -

“Evelyn, Ethan is right. Now we should prepare for the worst.”

As soon as these words were spoken, the two of them immediately turned their attention to Barbara.

She just hung up the phone and went straight to the sofa and sat down hard.

The body that suddenly descends seems to be getting rid of the fatigue, and the back that leans upwards tells of the helplessness in the heart.

The action of leaning back and closing her eyes was to organize her words. When she looked at the two of them again, the smile on her face was full of apology.

"First of all, I'm sorry, because before answering the copyright protection question of Snake Game, I only studied the copyright issue of Milova's games, and did not study the patent rights of their game consoles. So I asked you to apply for a temporary patent for Snake Game, trying to use this method to let you catch the new train of the copyright protection law that is about to be revised. From the situation at that time, this method is fine, but from the perspective of now... you might as well apply for the copyright directly..."

Ethan and Evelin felt their hearts sink at these words.

Because they understood what Barbara meant.

If we hadn't applied for a provisional patent for Snake Game and hadn't handed over the content display of the Snake Game arcade machine on the TV screen to the patent office, perhaps this kind of thing wouldn't have happened now.

Can……

its not right!
Ethan frowned slightly, shook his head, and said, "Teacher Barbara, I don't think you need to take the blame for us, because even if we directly register the copyright for Snake Game instead of applying for a provisional patent, Milohua can still sue us."

"Because no matter what method we use to protect our rights, Snake Game is a game that needs to be displayed on a standard TV. As long as we use a standard TV to sell it, it constitutes a legal infringement." "At most, it will be a little more troublesome to provide evidence. It won't be as simple as it is now, right?"

Although Ethan was angry, his anger did not affect his thinking.

His words made Barbara stunned for a moment, then she smiled helplessly and nodded, "Yes."

"Ethan, you are right. As long as your game presentation involves the generation, display, manipulation and use of symbols or geometric figures on the TV screen, you are infringing."

This result made Ethan sigh.

And Evelin looked puzzled, "But why?"

"Teacher Barbara, isn't this patent too overbearing?"

"Anyone who understands technology should know that the way symbols or geometric shapes on standard televisions are generated is the same! This is fixed by standard televisions!"

"Even if the reviewers don't understand technology, they should have watched TV programs, right? All TV stations have the same signal transmission feedback! If there is a difference, how can a standard TV receive and play it?"

"When reviewing this patent, didn't the people at the Patent Office feel there was something wrong?"

Evelyn's question made the helpless smile on Barbara's face even wider.

She stared at the girl for a long while, then moved her gaze to Ethan. After discovering that their eyes were filled with endless desire, she also shook her head and said, "Because those people in the Patent Office are a bunch of idiots."

"I should have told you before that Mi Luohua had a disagreement with the people in the Copyright Bureau when applying for copyright for the game, right?"

“But because the Copyright Office has expedited service, they didn’t follow through with the guys at the Copyright Office.”

“Then there was this situation where Nolan Bushnell copied Pong, and they couldn’t sue.”

"In this case, you have already witnessed the stupidity of the Copyright Office, and now you are dealing with this patent, which is the stupidity of the Patent Office."

Barbara sighed, rubbing her brows, and said, "I just called my friends at the Federal Patent Office, and they told me that when Ralph Bell applied for a patent for his design, the 'brown box', which was the predecessor of the MILO Odyssey, the patent examiners had no idea how to define this item."

"After reading the application submitted by Professor Ralph Bell, they believed that the technology of displaying various images on a television set could not be patented because television already had this function and television programs were the application of this function."

"This result made Ralph Bell very angry."

"Then he commandeered the patent office's television and showed them his design."

"Then, the entire patent office was attracted by his video games."

"They thought this presentation was interesting and different from previous TV shows, and because of the added control function, this allowed 'Brown Box' to pass the censorship."

"When it came to defining the patent, they were in a dilemma because Ralph Baer said that it was easy to make a separate circuit board and any engineer could imitate it, so it was meaningless to protect a separate circuit diagram. So the examiner of the Patent Office communicated with Ralph Baer. When they learned that the 'brown box' could only display games on a TV screen, they included the clause 'generating, displaying, manipulating and using symbols or geometric figures on a TV screen' in the patent protection."

"In their view, the four criteria of 'generation, display, manipulation and use' have been defined very specifically, but no one expected that the prefix of TV screen is the biggest problem!"

"Because there were no video games on the market at that time! No video arcades! No home consoles!"

Having said this, Barbara slowly closed her eyes again.

When this industry-killing prefix appears, she can't get around it even if she is a mage!

As for filing a lawsuit and invalidating the patent application?

forget it!
Because this stupid behavior was initiated by the Patent Office itself!

If the court rules that they are wrong, what will happen if other companies feel that the Patent Office’s review is not strict enough?
Re-prosecution? Re-trial?
Then the US courts should stop doing anything else but watching those companies sue each other every day for patents!
After all, America is a country with a maritime law system, and citing precedents is equivalent to giving judges certain legislative powers!

And even if this stupid registration wasn't caused by the Patent Office itself, but was caused by Ralph Baer's excessive application...

In fact, the court will not rule that a patent is invalid.

Because Ralph Baer was in the military industry.

From the Apollo program to military submarines, many patents were developed by him!
This kind of scientist is the national treasure of the United States!

Not to mention applying for an excessive civilian patent, even if he really wants to make money from it, everyone will turn a blind eye!

Note: ① The birth process of the patent for video games and training devices was told by Ralph Baer himself. In his memoir "The Birth of Video Games" published in 05, he also mentioned the patent office's initial refusal to register and the process of the incident. The US Patent Office and the Copyright Office are actually a pair of crouching dragons and phoenixes. It's nothing more than that companies don't trust them. They have done too many outrageous things.

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(End of this chapter)