Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 70 A ray of light in the fog
What conflicts did you have with Milova when you were working there?
Ethan didn't even have to think about this question and could answer it directly.

"Barbara, you know about this matter. I really just wrote an invitation letter according to the leader's request."

"An invitation to Nolan Bushnell."

Ethan said: "I didn't make the list of invitees, and it's not up to me to decide who should receive which guests."

"Besides the invitation letter, I only had one conflict with Milohua. That was when I was fired and they wanted to embezzle my compensation. I used some fierce words to defend my rights."

"What wording?" Barbara was interested.

"Uh...racial discrimination." Ethan took a deep breath and said, "The HR member who talked to me used his words to belittle Dr. King. I pointed out his mistake and threatened him to send a letter for help to the San Francisco Equal Rights Organization."

"Dr. King? Martin Luther King?"

Barbara agreed as she took notes, "If the people of Milohua insulted him, then your reporting was indeed a smart decision."

"Oh, thank you." Ethan thanked him and added, "Then I also said that their behavior of not paying compensation is illegal. I will apply for assistance from the American Legal Services Corporation."

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

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

"..."

Hearing this, Barbara's hand, which was recording, suddenly stopped.

He raised his head slightly and glanced at Ethan.

There was a flash of doubt in his bright eyes. "You mean, you were fired after Philips acquired Milohua?"

"Correct."

"Okay." Barbara emphasized this point, "So... you are the scapegoat chosen by the leader?"

"I think so, too." Ethan nodded and said bluntly, "In fact, I have always had a feeling that the leaders kept me around just to fire me when they are held accountable, so that they can cover up their incompetence."

"Great~baby~"

Ethan's words made Barbara laugh. "If you are sure that there is no other conflict between you and Mi Luohua, then I suspect that in such a bureaucratic company, suing you is just to cover up their incompetence."

"Of course, it's just a suspicion."

'? '

Ethan narrowed his eyes.

He felt that what Barbara said seemed to make sense.

After all, there is a saying that goes, "If the top beam is crooked, the bottom beams will be crooked too." When the leaders of the branch companies are frantically shifting the blame in order to keep their positions, how can the top leaders of the directly affiliated companies take the initiative to assume the responsibilities of the parent company?
The "Snake Game" created by him, a former employee of Milova, can indeed make Milova lose face.

While he was thinking, Barbara wrote down her guess on paper, and then said, "Then please evaluate Nolan Bushnell and Don Valentine separately. What kind of people do you think they are?"

"Before you were sued by Milova, were there any conflicts between you and 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 according to what she asked.

His evaluation of Nolan Bushnell is -

"He is a successful and excellent businessman. He is successful because he can see the value of Snake Game and wanted to monopolize the ownership of Snake Game as a long-term agent at the beginning of the negotiation. He is excellent because he did not give up even when he was in a desperate situation. Even if he could not win the lawsuit, he tried to win the sympathy of Ralph Bell and reach a settlement with Milowa."

His evaluation of Don Valentine is -

"He is an extreme egoist who will do anything for the sake of profit. The previous negotiations for Snake Game and last night's questioning were all him expressing his dissatisfaction on behalf of Atari."

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

"There is indeed a problem." She muttered, then held up the white paper, pointed at Ethan's previous evaluation and said, "Ethan, your evaluation of Don Valentine is that he is an extreme egoist, right?"

"Yes." Ethan nodded.

At the same time, he expressed his confusion, "Is there a problem, Barbara?"

"Of course!" Barbara tilted her head to look at Ethan, her face full of confidence. "Before I explain to you, I want to ask you something. Did you just tell me that Don Valentine roared at you last night and said he would sue you?"

"Correct."

"Didn't you just say that Don Valentine said last night that they would reach a settlement with Milova, meet all of Milova's demands, stop selling Snake Game, compensate Milova for the million-dollar loss as Milova requested, and recall all the products already on the market, that is, the Snake Game arcade machines and circuit boards?"

"Yeah~" Ethan confirmed that he was not mistaken.

"Then the problem arises."

Barbara put down the paper, knocked on the table, and said, "Ethan, maybe it's because you haven't learned about our country's patent protection law in detail, so you think Don Valentine's behavior is normal."

"But I want to tell you that his behavior is just not normal."

"Although our country's patent protection law states that when a plaintiff sues a defendant and claims that the defendant has infringed its patent, the plaintiff has the right to require the defendant to recall and destroy the infringing products from the market, this is difficult to achieve in practice."

"Or..."

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

“It’s basically impossible to achieve.”

Barbara leaned her elbows on the table and said seriously, "Regarding the issue of patent protection law, our United States Code has a complete collection. It states that if the plaintiff sues the defendant for patent infringement and requires the defendant to withdraw the infringing products from the market, the following four conditions must be met before the court can issue an injunction."

“The first condition is whether the plaintiff has suffered irreparable damage due to the defendant’s infringement.”

“This is generally impossible to achieve because the plaintiff must go bankrupt before the damage is considered irreparable. By this time, the infringing company has become an important player in the single market. In order to ensure market stability and economic development, the infringed company can only be sacrificed.”

“The second condition is whether the monetary damages in the case are sufficient to compensate the plaintiff’s losses.”

"When the plaintiff takes the initiative to file for monetary damages, this clause is certain to be achieved."

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

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

"The last two points actually have a lot of room for maneuver in the formal operation. Take Snake Game for example. If such a phenomenal game is recalled and destroyed, it will cause great damage to the entertainment life of the public. At the same time, it will also cause huge economic losses to those merchants who bought the arcade machines."

"In this case, as long as Milova doesn't go bankrupt due to the sale of Snake Game, how could Snake Game be recalled? And the court is unlikely to support Milova's request for Atari to recall Snake Game, so why would the extreme egoist you mentioned angrily say that he would cooperate with Milova?" Barbara tilted her head to look at Ethan.

There was a gleam of wisdom in those bright eyes.

Then she leaned back and sneered, "When Don Valentine said he would have Atari recall the Snake Game arcade machine, there was something wrong with him! Because there was no recall of Pong on the market!"

"If we must compare the damage caused by copyright infringement, Pong is obviously more harmful than Snake Game!"

"Right?"

"When he had already gone through the Pong lawsuit! When he clearly knew that infringing products like electronic games did not need to be recalled! Then why did he still say in front of you that he would cooperate with Milova and transfer all the losses to you?"

“Isn’t this behavior unusual?”

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

"Want to accuse you of business 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's really an egomaniac, shouldn't he be pushing you to fix the problem and keep selling the game?"

"Or..."

"His 'interest' is not a game?"

The questions were like a string of machine guns, and Ethan was stunned on the spot!
Yup!

There is something extremely wrong with this matter!
Ethan hadn't noticed any of these details when he was yelled at by Don Valentine last night.

Firstly, it was because Barbara confirmed that "Snake Game" had infringed upon his rights. When this fact was established, he commissioned "Snake Game" to Atari for production and sales, which was indeed an attempt to bring someone down.

Secondly, he felt that there was nothing wrong with the request to recall infringing products. If his own products were infringed, he would certainly make corresponding claims when filing a lawsuit, or he would definitely be so furious that he would strangle the infringer to death.

But now, Barbara said that a recall is impossible? Even the law cannot support it?
There is indeed something wrong with Don Valentine’s rage!

Thinking of this, Ethan quickly asked: “Barbara, are you sure?”

“It’s about the recall.”

Ethan's question made Barbara roll her eyes and said, "When I was studying with my teacher, my teacher took a case from Playboy. The other party asked Playboy to recall the magazine that violated the rules. My teacher directly used the United States Code to scold the plaintiff and the plaintiff's lawyer in front of the judge during the mediation process, and told the plaintiff's lawyer to go back to school and start again."

"I still remember what he said at the time. He said, 'Can your personal interests be higher than the public interest? If so, I can apply to the GF Ministry to station troops at your doorstep!'"

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

"What the hell! What a tough guy!"

Ethan was shocked.

The judge told the victim not to make trouble unreasonably?

What kind of defense is this?
This fact also made Ethan silent.

At this moment, he just felt like he was doing a math problem.

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

Is it possible...

Is it because of this lawsuit that Nolan Bushnell and Don Valentine's monetization plans have been disrupted?
Because the infringement of "Snake Game" would indeed cause Atari's value to plummet.

Thinking of this, Ethan immediately said, "Barbara, do you think it is possible that Don Valentine and Nolan Bushnell's real interest is to sell Atari? Because as far as I know, Nolan Bushnell is trying to sell Atari to the outside world."

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 selling Atari?"

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

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

"Yes, Nolan is selling Atari." Ethan nodded. "As far as I know, this should have happened a long time ago, at least before we reached a cooperation agreement, and the source of the news... uh... my friend told me."

"You should have met Steve Jobs, the friend of Wozniacki at the last party..."

"You must find him as soon as possible!" Barbara made a decision before Ethan finished speaking, "Quick, quick, quick! Let him come to see me!"

"What's wrong?" Ethan was a little puzzled. "Is there something wrong with this matter?"

"Of course!" Barbara shouted. "Of course there is a problem! Nolan Bushnell wants to sell Atari? But why would other companies want to buy Atari? What is valuable about Atari?"

"Their games are infringing! Their machines are infringing! They won't be able to release new games in the next year!"

"Nolan Bushnell is still selling Atari in this situation! And people are willing to buy it?"

“That’s the biggest problem!”

"Because the land and labor are worthless!"

"Imagine if you were a capital giant and found that the greatest value of the entire Atari company was some substitutes, why didn't you recruit people yourself? Why didn't you poach people yourself? Why did you acquire them directly?"

"Isn't this a mental illness?"

"That's certainly not what Nolan Bushnell is selling! They must be hiding something!"

"And what they are hiding is definitely the true value of Atari!"

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

Barbara glared at Ethan, tapped her watch, and said, "Baby, can I see Steve before 2pm?"

(End of this chapter)