I was reborn without dreams

Chapter 140 Unorthodox Kung Fu, Righteous People

In just one day, the old man realized that his boss was absolutely right, even more so than a fortune teller, and that he himself was just a worthless old man who had lived forty-seven years in vain.

What do I know? I don't know anything.

There were two seemingly unrelated news items in the newspaper, but they both pointed to the same thing.

First, "Chen Xiaoer" and his partner "Thick-Eyebrowed Zhu" filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against three audio-visual publishing houses in Luzhou. "Chen Xiaoer" accused the three companies of copyright infringement by including their original and performed sketches such as "The Great Transformation of a Living Person," "The Universe Gymnastics Team Selection Competition," and "Roasted Lamb Skewers" in the "Happy Series" VCDs they distributed. He demanded compensation of one million yuan and a public apology.

This news may seem unremarkable, but when considered in the context of the momentous event of joining the World Trade Organization, Fang Daqiao felt that various copyright infringement cases would inevitably emerge in the coming period, and they would all refer to the case in Luzhou.

Secondly, at the "China-Japan Symposium on Technological Innovation and Intellectual Property Protection," an official statement was released, indicating that in order to leverage the role of the intellectual property system in incentivizing innovation, protecting rights, regulating the market, and creating a favorable environment under the new circumstances, China will actively adjust its intellectual property policies in the field of science and technology in five aspects.

Fang Daqiao pondered the specifics repeatedly and found them to be quite compelling.

The first aspect mentioned is to further improve the incentive mechanism for promoting technological innovation through intellectual property rights. Last year, Fang Daqiao was not so sure about this, but this year, most of his work is related to "technological innovation" and "incentives".

Taking Zhang Xiaobai Technology Co., Ltd.'s current products as examples, whether it is "Jinbang Blog", "Xiaobai Antivirus" or "Xiaobai Input Method", they all have a large number of patent applications.

What international multinational corporations value, besides some first-mover advantage and user base, is the sheer number of technology patents that are essentially gold mines.

Last year, Fang Daqiao wasn't very confident about making money from this, but now that the news has come out, he knows the wind is blowing.

Taking "Xiaobai Input Method" as an example, firstly, the "two-way search function in the search bar" can be authorized to all Chinese input method companies in China. Of course, other functions such as "website completion" and "keyword association" can also be authorized. If necessary, "Xiaobai Input Method" can even exchange patents with Baidu on search engine technology patents.

Of course, this also depends on the future development of "Xiaobai Input Method".

Meanwhile, many programmers still don't understand how "Xiaobai Input Method" makes a profit. It's not about selling skins or pop-up ads as they think. Instead, it's about leveraging Zhang Da'an's unique position to collaborate with various functional departments and build a dictionary of commonly used professional terms.

This kind of B2B business is not unusual; it's similar to antivirus software. Enterprise-level needs have different tendencies in different fields. For example, in police stations and police offices, frontline officers can't all be proficient in Wubi input when processing text on computers. However, if the "Xiaobai Input Method" has a database of commonly used police vocabulary in its pinyin mode, then newcomers will be just as efficient at text input as older, more experienced Wubi users.

Similarly, there are accounting terms, economic terms, tax terms, and so on. Different organizations have different terms, so different terminologies can be created to solve the problem of efficiency in written office work.

This word database mode happens to be a patent of "Xiaobai Input Method".

If an internet company gets involved, it's not as simple as just rewriting it in a different language to get around it. In lawsuits, especially copyright infringement lawsuits, it all comes down to who's the "best player" in each country.

Given that the demands are legitimate and the evidence is conclusive, there are plenty of places like Jiangning, Wudu, and even Luzhou, which is next to Jiangkou Province, willing to help "Zhang Xiaobai Technology Co., Ltd." become a local "Pizza Hut".

It takes two or three rounds of back-and-forth negotiations to make it easier to negotiate the patent licensing fee.

At this stage, the ways to make money will increase. For example, if "Xiaobai Input Method" becomes the industry leader within six months, many personal computer manufacturers will come to talk about pre-installation licensing.

Whether it's an annual license or a perpetual license for a specific version, these are all negotiable.

So when the official media released information about the first aspect, Lao Fangtou knew that he was just an ignorant old bumpkin, and that the idea of ​​a "team of a thousand painters" was great, bright, and correct.

The logic is simple: the significance of copyright becoming valuable lies in the fact that the value of any professional working in the field of intellectual property will increase over time.

Those "comic book sweatshops" might produce one or two blockbuster products, and then, about five to ten years later, they'll start to reap the rewards...

Now, the boss, Zhang Da'an, has simply skipped the stage of rampant exploitation and oppression, and is directly paying money to allow the assembly-line artists in the "comic sweatshop" to enter a platform where they can reasonably create and earn value.

Whether one is good at comparison or not, the fact that overnight, apart from the artists around "Three Kingdoms City" in Taihu City who were still observing, all the rest planned to flee to the Chengdong District of Jiangning City, is enough to show how despicable the owners and shareholders of those comic studios are.

It's commonplace for artists and illustrators to be owed wages, but that doesn't stop them from getting a brand-new Audi A6 like Zhang Da'an and parking it in front of their studio.

Fang Daqiao's previous impotent rage stemmed from this: the boss almost single-handedly destroyed the benchmark characteristic industries of two prefecture-level cities, which could even be considered the entire industry.

Now, companies and studios in Chongzhou and Taihu that do OEM work for Japanese manga and animation are all facing the risk of default, because they are unlikely to fulfill their contracts.

The only way to retain staff is to offer an emergency pay raise. Hiring? What are you thinking? Zhang Da'an is running a "team of a thousand painters," not some "team of a thousand dreamers."

With over 20 million yuan already prepared for basic salary expenses each year, what problem could there be?
The key issue is that it will provoke the anger of the cultural industry management departments of two prefecture-level cities, which is a typical case of undermining the development of local industries.

Besides, when have Chongzhou City and Taihu City ever wronged you, Zhang Da'an?
You can poach people, we'll poach you; you can set up schools, we won't stop you.

Even the newly established Dongwei Port Jianggao Branch School in Jianggao City, which is under the jurisdiction of Chongzhou City, is it not within the jurisdiction of Chongzhou City?

Without any prior notice, they're showing a complete disregard for the people of Chongzhou and Taihu. If this gets out of hand, Taihu University of Light Industry might get dragged into it. Fang Daqiao's livelihood in the field of industrial design depends on the province's only science and engineering-related industrial design program.

After all, Zhang Xiaobai Technology Co., Ltd. is about to launch an electronic product, an electronic dictionary called "Xiao Zhuangyuan" similar to "Wenquxing".

Design is not simply a matter of achieving artistic aesthetics; it also needs to conform to the characteristics of industrialized assembly line products, ensuring ease of processing, assembly, disassembly, and maintenance.

The reason why industrial design and art design are two different things can be summarized in one sentence: industrial design is both an art and a technology.

Either an engineering student who understands aesthetics, or an art student who understands engineering.

Having only one capability is pretty useless; it only makes you part of an engineering or aesthetic solution database. Its future function is just to provide creative ideas for geniuses, nothing more.

So here's the question: while engineering databases may not be easy to accumulate, wouldn't the accumulation of aesthetic solutions be a perfect fit for a "team of a thousand illustrators"?

So, after reading the two news articles, Lao Fangtou quickly called to flatter his boss.

"Boss, you truly have a long-term vision! This 'team of a thousand painters' proposal is absolutely brilliant! I believe that the entire Jiangkou Province, and even the Jianghuai, Zheshui, and Luzhou regions, will not have any competitors of the same caliber. You truly deserve to be called a 'three-time champion,' a reincarnation of the God of Literature, you can see through ten thousand years in a single glance, truly..."

"No? You called just to flatter me? Did I invite you here so you could learn from Guan Changsheng?"

"..."

"However, I was just about to call you. I have something to do for you, or you can have a meal with the people from Jiangning Art Academy and ask them to help you with some connections."

"What do you mean?"

"Here's 20 million. Use it to buy the electronic sound copyrights for 20,000 classic songs with 16th and 32nd chords. The average price should be around 500 yuan per song. You can raise the price slightly for classic songs, but keep the overall price at around 500 yuan."

"..."

"Then you should set up a 'ringback tone business development project team' to create a website for downloading 16-chord and 32-chord electronic sounds."

"Yes, boss, don't worry, I'll set up a project development team right away."

"In addition, you can also start a mobile website. You can refer to the experience abroad, but that's just for reference. Don't worry about what content to make for now."

"Yes, I will definitely follow up."

"Alright, let's stop here for now. Once the 'team of a thousand illustrators' is almost ready, I'll tell you about the next steps in business development. But remember, 'Xiaobai Antivirus' and 'Xiaobai Input Method' are the core of the business, and they must be permanently free. Then, for the next period of time, organize the students doing part-time work at Jiangning Normal University and have them write more articles about 'the free model is a dead end,' and then forward them widely. Similar articles could also be 'free software can only profit from advertising,' 'pop-up ads are a last resort for software development companies,' etc., which can all be promoted online."

"Huh?! This...isn't this disadvantageous for us?"

"You don't know anything. Just do whatever I tell you to do. Are you the boss and I'm the boss?"

"Yes, yes, yes, sir... Ugh, I was just momentarily confused and couldn't quite grasp it. I only realized today from the news that the boss has a long-term vision and is planning for the future. I was just too narrow-minded... Hello? Boss? Damn it."

Zhang Da'an couldn't be bothered to listen to his flattery. With such low standards, how dare he even try?

Look at Guan Changsheng, that's what you call a sycophantic expert, he's practically the GOAT of the hemorrhoid-licking world, making Coach Zhang feel happy every moment.

It feels so good to be a tyrant. I used to look down on tyrants, but I was too young.

After Coach Zhang and the nanny finished warming up, and as they were about to give another lesson to the local recruitment committee, Old Fangtou continued to ponder the five points released by the official media.

One of the points mentioned strengthening the management system, protection capabilities, and service system for intellectual property rights related to science and technology. He pondered for a moment, stroking his chin and muttering, "That guy really hits where he's supposed to, he's incredibly powerful..."

Spending 20 million to buy the electronic music rights to a song might set a new benchmark.

In the past two years, the pilot projects for high technology have generally been located in only four places. The first is Beijing, with "Zhongguancun" being a well-known name. The second is Luzhou, an economic center, which is undoubtedly the top choice. The third is Lingdong Province, which is undoubtedly the forefront of opening up, and Bao'an City is an indisputable "economic enclave" of Beijing, where all high-tech companies can be registered. The fourth is Zhejiang Province, which is mainly composed of "Zhejiang merchants" who have taken the stage and the various cities behind them.

Without Jiangkou, without Qilu, there would certainly be no impoverished areas surrounding the capital.

But now the situation has changed. Given the shady practices of boss Zhang Da'an in organizing a "team of a thousand painters," who knows, even evil people who practice demonic arts might become righteous people.

(End of this chapter)