Chapter 116: Lawsuit

Just after eating lunch, Du Qiu called his childhood friend Yu Donghua.

“Big Fish, I need your help with something.”

“Xiao Qiu, did you offend someone? That public intellectual Big V obviously seems to be used by someone to disgust and slander you.”

Yu Donghua was apparently aware of the news on the internet.

“This is just an appetizer; I’m now truly facing a big problem.”

Yu Donghua perked up and asked, “What happened?”

Du Qiu explained the possibility of the industrial park, where his company was located, being re-planned and demolished, mentioning that the operations of the company would definitely be affected and the losses could be substantial.

“This… the person you’ve offended must be quite powerful; urban planning isn’t something that can be changed on a whim. I’ve been to your place; I haven’t heard my father-in-law, who works in Dah Jiang Real Estate, mention any changes to that area.”

“Someone must have manipulated the situation; otherwise, your father-in-law’s Dah Jiang Real Estate would definitely know. Can you ask him to help find out from the side who changed the planning here and when exactly will the land be auctioned?”

“Are you planning to prepare in advance?” guessed Yu Donghua.

“Yes, if there is enough time, I can better prepare for the relocation, and perhaps the losses can be minimized.”

“No problem, I’ll help you inquire.”

Du Qiu, thinking of Yu Donghua’s father-in-law’s Dah Jiang Real Estate, then said, “By the way, also help me look for some ready-made factories. I need at least three standard factories, though a few more would also be fine.”

Yu Donghua laughed and said, “Haha, actually Dah Jiang Real Estate has ready-made factories, but they are a bit remote, almost close to the eastern Zhejiang. Would your employees be willing to commute that far for work?”

“Ah, that is indeed quite remote. If you have time, take me to see them first. Without a field inspection, I can’t get a feel for it.”

Dream Technology Company now basically has no ordinary workers, all are engineers and research staff; setting the factory far from the city center is definitely not conducive to attracting talent.

If Du Qiu doesn’t see for himself how far it is from the Magic City downtown area and what the surrounding environment is like, he certainly can’t determine if it’s suitable.

“Sure, I’ll take you there tomorrow.”

“Oh, right, our joint venture, Wisdom Technology, have you found a location for the company?” Du Qiu remembered the company they had invested in together and couldn’t help but ask.

“Of course, I’ve arranged an entire floor, about 1500 square meters, in the Dah Jiang Real Estate headquarter building; it’s already being renovated.”

“You move so quickly? I have some requirements; I’ll send them to you later.”

“No problem, we’ll definitely follow your suggestions to the letter.”

“That’s good. But now the most important thing is to help me find out about the planning issue.”

“Rest assured, leave it to me brother.”

Just after Du Qiu hung up the phone, Sun Hongming came in and said as he entered, “I’ve brought you more bad news.”

“Oh, what news?”

“Several companies from Japan have simultaneously filed lawsuits in courts in Tokyo and Magic City against us for infringing on their intellectual property and patent rights, with total compensation claims reaching 10 billion Tang Yuan!”

Not angry but amused, Du Qiu said, “Hey, it’s one thing for these people to sue us in their own country, but they actually came to Tang Country to fight an intellectual property lawsuit with us?”

Sun Hongming said in a somewhat grave tone, “This might be the case of ‘the drunkard’s interest is not in the wine’; it’s really just an excuse to smear us. Everyone knows that patent disputes are time-consuming and effort-intensive, and evidence gathering, among other things, is very difficult. By the time everything is contested clearly, the impression that we stole their patents might already be cast. Besides, it definitely means our products won’t be able to be sold in Japan anymore.”

Du Qiu nodded and said, “Right, the key thing is, once the lawsuits start, our products will also encounter great difficulties on the international market. Users who need to purchase our CNC machining centers, who are not short on money, will surely keep their distance from products with unclear intellectual property rights.”

“What do you think we should do?”

Du Qiu pondered and replied, “Of course, we’ll convene the legal affairs department and Attorney Song to actively respond to the lawsuit, and let’s see what evidence the Japanese can produce to prove their claim of our infringement. Also, let Liu Sichen’s PR team take action to minimize the negative impact. At least in Tang Country, we can’t let their smear tactics succeed.”

“Yes, Director Liu is already handling it. The current online public opinion is in our favor. After all, this is our home turf, and few people are on the Japanese side.”

Knock, knock, knock, a series of knocks on the door followed.

“Come in!”

As Du Qiu finished speaking, the door opened, and Wen Siqing stood at the doorway, asking, “President Du, Director Xu from the procurement department has an urgent matter.”

Du Qiu exchanged glances with Sun Hongming and said, “Let him in.”

A man in his thirties quickly entered Du Qiu’s office and seeing that Sun Hongming was also there, he nodded and said, “Sun President is here too.”

“Director Xu, what’s the matter?”

“President Du, you had me order a batch of self-locking nuts from Rock Company in Japan a while ago. They just called and said that considering our intellectual property dispute with Japanese machine tool companies, they refuse our purchase, fearing that we will imitate!”

“That’s nonsense!” Sun Hongming, furious, slammed the table. The succession of events had really angered Sun Hongming.

As for the self-locking nuts, Sun Hongming happened to be familiar with them. Rock Company’s self-locking nuts are widely used around the world, especially in the high-speed trains in Tang Country, which mainly use Rock Company’s self-locking nuts.

The inventor and owner of Rock Company even published the principle of the self-locking nut on their website, saying that they allowed the whole world to imitate them. Many did imitate, but no one could make a nut with the same self-locking effect as theirs. This was due to their unique, years of accumulated technology and tricks that couldn’t be replicated—different eccentricity amounts corresponding to different sizes and materials were key to the irreplicability of their self-locking nuts.

Now that this company was saying they feared Dream Technology’s imitation and hence were refusing to sell to them, what was this if not nonsense?

“No need to get angry over this, Sun Brother. It seems that the Japanese are united against us. This precisely shows that they are afraid of us.”

Director Xu asked, “President Du, what about the procurement of these nuts?”

Du Qiu said arrogantly, “We’ll make them ourselves! Didn’t Rock Company say they were afraid of us imitating? Then I’ll invent a different self-locking nut and aim to take over all of Rock Company’s international market share!”

As a joke, he now had a manufacturing industry database from a Level 4 civilization; he didn’t believe it wouldn’t include such nuts—there were likely countless designs.

Although Sun Hongming had been angry just a moment ago, upon hearing Du Qiu’s words, he quickly advised, “President Du, don’t act on impulse. It’s not worth spending time developing over a tiny nut. As far as I know, a company in Shencheng invented a self-locking nut with the same capability. Why don’t we purchase from them instead?”

Du Qiu shook his head and said, “I’m not being impulsive. Though tiny, nuts can sometimes be the most critical component. Maybe the product from the Shencheng company can also meet our needs, but it’s difficult to say whether they might not do something like what Rock Company did in the future. Actually, the best way is to acquire that company and then arrange for the research center to conduct specialized research and development—I believe we can have a variety of different patented methods. Have someone go to Shencheng and check out that company to see if it’s possible to acquire them.”

“Alright, acquisition is indeed a good idea. I remember their business isn’t doing so well, mainly because the Japanese name of Rock Company is too big.”

Director Xu had not expected that, after Du Qiu and Sun Hongming had talked it out, they would decide to acquire a company to meet their self-locking nut needs. Somewhat dizzily, he followed Sun Hongming out of Du Qiu’s office.

“Outrageous!”

In an office somewhere in Magic City,

an elder spoke to his secretary, who had come in response to hearing the news, “Secretary Tian, check for me—how far has this year’s selection of the top ten outstanding young people in our city progressed? A young scholar like Du Qiu, who has made such excellent contributions and successfully started a business in our city, should be on the list of candidates.”

“Alright, I will get on it immediately.”

“Wait, please check my recent schedule. Find some time for me to visit Dream Technology. This kind of technology enterprise with independent intellectual property rights is exactly what our city needs.”

“Oh, you have an hour free the day after tomorrow morning. What do you think…”

“Then it’ll be the day after tomorrow morning! Remember to inform the relevant personnel from the city planning bureau and the power supply bureau to attend, and also mention it to the television station for the evening news.”

Secretary Tian understood and nodded before leaving.

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