Chapter 64 Patent Trolls

*Hiss—*

This cut was too deep; even Elder Qian, who had seen much of the world, was momentarily stunned.

One must know that Braun's top-tier model on the international market only sold for 80 dollars.

"One hundred dollars? Isn't that a bit high?"

Zhang Zhengguo frowned. "After all, we don't have a brand..."

"Mr. Zhang, you're mistaken."

Lin Xi picked up that black Red Star shaver, his finger gently sliding across the gold-stamped "Future."

"In the past, we didn't have a brand because we were always following behind others, making cheap goods, over and over."

"But this time, it's different."

Lin Xi looked up, his gaze turning sharp, like an unsheathed blade.

"We aren't selling shavers."

"We are selling God's hair clippers."

"It's a mysterious magnetic force from the East, an industrial aesthetic that transcends the era."

He casually pushed the expensive Braun shaver aside with a crisp "clatter."

"Braun? That's already an antique from the last century."

"I want every foreign man who uses this thing to feel like he's using a rusty hoe when he picks up a Braun."

The meeting room was pin-drop silent.

Everyone was shaken by Lin Xi's almost arrogant confidence.

But as their eyes fell upon the black machine on the table that looked like it came from the future, they had to admit—

This kid seemed to actually have the capital to be arrogant.

...

Meanwhile. Frankfurt, Germany.

Braun Headquarters, top-tier laboratory.

"Listen to this sound; this is the roar of power!"

Technical Director Hans, wearing a white lab coat, held the silver prototype that was as thick as a brick, his face full of intoxication.

He pressed the switch.

The reciprocating blade head vibrated violently under the steel foil, emitting a "buzzing" sound like a small tractor.

"This is the hum of machinery, a symbol of strength."

Hans turned around and reported to the President behind him:

"We have adopted the latest 0.08mm cold-rolled steel stamped foil."

"Although the defect rate is still high, this is already the limit of current metal processing technology."

"I am confident that this shaver will dominate the chins of European men for the next five years!"

The President nodded with satisfaction, slowly cutting a cigar:

"What about Philips from the Netherlands?"

"Them?"

A disdainful sneer curled at the corner of Hans's mouth.

"Still playing with those rotary blade toys."

"Low speed, poor cutting power—at most they're just a bit quieter. That's stuff for women; real men should use vibration!"

...

Eindhoven, Netherlands, Philips Headquarters.

"What do the Germanic people know? That thing is for shaving wild boars."

The chief engineer of Philips adjusted his glasses and pointed at the three-head rotary structure on the blueprint:

"Although our speed is only 2,800 RPM, we win on simple structure and low cost."

"As long as we keep the price down, the market is ours."

The two giants looked down on each other across the Rhine River, full of confidence as they prepared for a big push this winter.

They never could have dreamed.

In the far East, a pair of invisible hands had already quietly dug out the foundations beneath their feet.

...

Northwest Base, China.

"Are you crazy?"

Zhang Zhengguo looked at the mountain of documents on the table, his eyes nearly popping out.

"A single patent application fee costs several hundred dollars, and there are at least three hundred here!"

"Are you planning to burn all the foreign exchange we earned from selling fans?"

"Mr. Zhang, this isn't called burning money; it's called a moat."

Lin Xi sat with his legs crossed, casually pulling out a document and shaking it:

"Look at this one, a patent regarding the 'hollow cup rotor winding structure for micro-motors'."

"I've split it into seventeen sub-items: the winding angle of the coil is one, the insulation coating of the enameled wire is another, and I even applied for a separate one for the dynamic balance calibration method of the rotor."

At this moment, the livestream chat was flooding the screen:

[Incredible! This is the legendary patent troll tactic!]

[Splitting one technology into hundreds—Braun won't be able to bypass it even if they want to. Every step they take will be a landmine.]

[LMAO, how could foreigners in 1980 have seen this kind of 21st-century hooligan play?]

[This move, this move is walking someone else's path, leaving them with no path to take.]

[CEO Lin: I applied for these patents with my own skill; why call it trolling?]

Lin Xi pointed at those documents, his eyes growing deep:

"Westerners talk law with us, so we'll talk rules with them."

"As long as these patents are successfully filed under the PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) system."

"In the future, whether it's Braun or Philips."

"For every shaver they produce, even if only a single screw uses our ideas, they'll have to obediently pay us taxes."

"This is—an intellectual property barrier."

Elder Qian sat at the head of the table, holding a teacup, lost in thought:

"Turning technology into legal clauses to choke others' necks..."

"Lin Xi, this move of yours is ruthless enough."

"However,"

Elder Qian's tone shifted, his brow furrowing slightly.

"If we apply for a patent for the core formula of our neodymium iron boron magnets, won't that be equivalent to making it public?"

"This generation's 'Magnet King' is of great use for missile actuators and submarine motors."

"If this leaks, wouldn't it be considered aiding the enemy?"

Zhang Zhengguo also realized: "That's right!"

"Even though we can nerf the performance for the civilian version."

"Once this formula leaks, with the technical reserves of the Lighthouse Country and Japan, they could reverse-engineer it within a year."

Lin Xi smiled and pulled an English journal from his bag, with "Science" printed on the cover.

"Elder Qian, you're overthinking it."

Lin Xi flipped to a dog-eared page and pointed to a paper on rare earth permanent magnet theory.

"Harrison sends us international academic journals every month now."

"I found this article in one of them."

"Actually, General Motors in the Lighthouse Country, Masato Sagawa, and Sumitomo Metals are already on the threshold of neodymium iron boron in their labs."

"I was also inspired by this article and gave it a try."

Lin Xi spread his hands, showing a genius-style humblebrag:

"I didn't expect to succeed after just a few tries. It was just good luck."

"Even if I didn't do it, they would be able to make it in another year or so at most."

This was the honest truth, and also the "way out" Lin Xi had prepared long ago.

With this journal as cover, his monstrous behavior of "hand-crafting a formula after three days of seclusion" had a rational explanation—

A flash of genius, a final push based on cutting-edge theory.

"Since we can't keep it under wraps, why not..."

A glint of cunning flashed in Lin Xi's eyes, and his voice lowered, "let's play something even bigger."