American History 1988
Chapter 109 - 103: Armor

Chapter 109: Chapter 103: Armor

After quietly setting up a massive voice chat channel for a hundred people in the Stanford computer room, Dean’s headphones were never quiet. He had muted several users multiple times but granting them speaking permissions again did absolutely nothing to quell the noise.

For students from various universities across California, it was as if they had discovered a new world. The previous chat rooms were text-based, but now they could ditch their keyboards and talk directly.

And so, these over-excited fools did all kinds of ridiculous things. Singing and telling jokes were the more reserved actions—some went as far as to broadcast a battle of the sexes, secure in the knowledge that no one could see.

This voice-only approach, devoid of visuals but able to satisfy some peculiar personal tastes, deeply stirred the other beasts in the chat room.

Amidst a multitude of hype and screams, the Teams app crashed. Dean had designed it with the scenario of one person hosting a meeting and others listening in mind.

Without a doubt, the practice of a hundred people speaking at once put immense stress on the software’s data collection and processing capabilities.

And as the end-users’ computers couldn’t handle so many microphone inputs, not only did the software crash, but everyone’s computers practically froze at the same time, and even Stanford’s servers experienced a shutdown.

Realizing things were going south, Dean and his companions hurriedly packed up and sneaked out of the computer room. It was better to leave before the network administrator noticed them.

Although the stress test for Teams ended with the software crashing, Dean had essentially achieved his goal.

If one discounts the simultaneous speaking by multiple people, Teams had basically met Dean’s initial design objectives. In reality, it was unlikely that there would be many instances of many people speaking at once during use.

After all, the white-collars and suit-clad folks sitting in offices rarely engage in arguments. They are more likely to sit at their desks by the floor-to-ceiling windows, sipping coffee, and listening calmly to the other party’s speech.

So Dean didn’t plan on further optimizing Teams for the time being. As an initial version, it was already fit for release as a product.

But there was another matter he needed to take care of first.

"Software patent? Dean, why are you interested in this area of law?" Adam was baffled. This guy suddenly came to ask for his help in introducing some law students.

"You know, Adam, I’ve been working on a piece of software lately. Before it goes live, I need to figure out if there are any risks or if there’s anything to protect myself."

In America, being a common-law country, the laws are as vast as the ocean. Dean could be certain that his Teams app had a unique concept, but he couldn’t guarantee it was devoid of any legal risks.

Who knows if someday an unrelated company might jump out, accusing Teams of infringing on its rights?

A few years back, a company making electronic toys took Atari to court, claiming that Atari’s video game console infringed on their game entertainment system patent.

The so-called patent of the electronic toy company was a light gun, which interacted with the TV screen to some extent.

However, these seemingly unrelated products ended in Atari paying a settlement of 700,000 US dollars.

Dean certainly didn’t want the hard-earned money from his software sales to end up in the pockets of litigants and their backing lawyers.

"Alright, Dean, you should be grateful that Stanford has a free legal aid center and interns from the law school who come here to offer legal advice pro bono." Knowing what Dean needed, Adam didn’t hesitate to take him to the law library near the law school.

Stanford’s campus houses eleven libraries, and each school within it has a professional library catered to its specific disciplines, with the free legal aid center also located here.

Upon entering the library, Adam confidently made his way to the third desk behind the consultation counter.

"Mark, you didn’t show up at the last party. Don’t the girls from the AP Sisterhood attract you anymore? If I hadn’t known about our hunt for streetwalkers in Sunnyvale, I would’ve thought you’d switched to batting for the other team."

"Adam, you’ve reminded me of that time when I was chased down Sunnyvale’s streets by a woman nearly my mother’s age demanding her fee. Mother F*cker, she had the nerve to hike the price at the critical moment?

That’s false advertising! I should’ve sued her right then! Of course, you’re the main culprit, having sworn that you were a regular there—mentioning your name made them hike the price~"

The brown-haired Mark at the desk didn’t even need to look up to know who was coming. After finishing the last form, Mark with his black-rimmed glasses finally looked up.

"So, what is it this time? Let’s get one thing straight—no more pranks about using cease and desist letters to scare professors. I’m hoping to smoothly earn my J.D. in two years."

"Come on, I’m a director of PBK. How could I do something as unethical as that?" Adam spread his hands innocently, even his expression appeared somewhat dejected due to his friend’s misunderstanding.

"I think he definitely could do something like that. Not long ago, he managed to get me, the professor, called into the office." Dean, who had been watching the drama unfold with his arms crossed, suddenly delivered a backstab.

"Hey~ Dean, you’re the one who asked for my help~" Adam complained discontentedly.

"Aha~" Mark stood up and fist-bumped with Dean, "Are we all victims then? That’s what he said to me when he was persuading me to join PBK."

"Wow~ So this is PBK’s fine tradition." Dean saw the gold key pin on Mark’s chest. "So I feel this isn’t so much an honor society as it is a bad boys’ prank organization."

"Exactly," Mark said as if he found someone who understood, "Adam’s election as a director of PBK was definitely the darkest day in its history."

"As America’s oldest academic society, Adam will also be nailed to the historical pillar of shame that belongs to it."

"Look at that, you’ve already completed my trial." Adam stood with his hands on his hips, a picture of pride. "Dean, maybe you should remind me what we’re here for today?"

"OK, Dean is it? I’m Mark Lemley, a doctoral candidate at the law school," said Mark, initiating the conversation with Dean without waiting for Adam to introduce them, "So, do you need some legal advice?

I specialize in the field of intellectual property law such as computer and internet law, patent law, trademark law, and some knowledge of antitrust law. If it’s something in that area, maybe I can help."

"Great! That’s exactly what I need!" This time Dean greeted Mark with PBK’s secret handshake, implying that in some way, they were now brothers.

"Dean Price, second-year computer science student." Dean passed the file he brought to Mark, "I’ve created a software, and everything about it is in here.

Right now, I’m not sure whether there are patent risks involved. Although there’s no similar software on the market, American law always has a surprise waiting for you when you least expect it, hence I need some professional advice."

"Another ambitious youngster ready to start a business," Mark began closely examining the documents Dean had provided, a scenario he came across every so often.

If there came a day when Stanford students were not seeking legal advice for entrepreneurship, Mark would actually question Stanford’s teaching atmosphere.

Being in Silicon Valley, business had almost become an instinct for everyone. When Mark chose his area of specialization, he also dived into the field of intellectual property without any hesitation.

Clearly, Adam had recommended a legal professional who was perfectly suited to Dean’s needs. Despite the relentless teasing from Mark and Dean, the members within PBK really were the best from each specialization.

Dean had prepared detailed information on how the Teams software worked. To make it more visual, he even thoughtfully printed out several main interfaces of the Teams software.

"Dean, from the information you provided, this software shouldn’t have any risk of infringement. Many of its functions are unique and could even be classified as creative inventions.

Of course, for detailed information, I need to check historical archives. Since we are both part of PBK, I won’t charge you for this extra research time, but just for this occasion."

As a doctoral candidate at the law school, Mark was already qualified to open his own law firm or intern at other law firms in Silicon Valley, where his charges could at least start at over 80 US dollars an hour.

If he obtained his doctorate, that rate would double or even triple right away. Especially in Silicon Valley, no one could start a business by themselves without attorneys.

"Mark, the best thing Adam did was letting us meet each other." Look at that, Dean saved a considerable amount on attorney fees. Of course, compared to that, networking was probably his biggest gain.

"By the way, apart from patent risk, I’d like to know if Teams could file for its own patent? You know, Mark, apart from potential risks, I also need something to protect myself."

If there was no infringement, that would be great, but Dean also wanted to armor himself up. Lawsuits and counter-lawsuits had always been an essential part of the growth process for commercial companies.

"Applying for a software patent is not an easy task." Mark pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, pondering carefully. "To date, the only case of software patent application that can be referenced is from the Diamond v. Diehr case in 1981.

The Federal Supreme Court emphasized the fact that the software runs on hardware, thereby ruling that a patent claim for a computer software that assisted in the process of manufacturing synthetic rubber met the statutory requirements for patents and was thus eligible.

There is a premise here, and that is the software applying for the patent must have its own algorithm. Dean, does your Teams have its own proprietary algorithm?"

"Of course, how Teams manages to allow a hundred people to connect and process the voice information collected from microphones at each terminal involves a complex sorting and dynamic programming algorithm." This was a core function that Dean worked hard to adapt and perfect.