Chapter 1737: Silent Reform, Turning Private Interests into Public Good

Feisu Chinese.

Xia Duo had not actually never considered reforming the patent system, but such a matter was simply not something he could manage alone.

One must know that patents in Netheril are subject to mandatory fees; regardless of whether you use them or not, as long as someone has registered a patent, the Arcane Union will directly deduct money (from the Mage Tower organization), unless you withdraw from the Arcane Union.

However, the Arcane Union is also one of the consensuses held by all spellcasters in Netheril; individual spellcasters aside, all Mage Tower organizations are implicitly joined to the Arcane Union.

It is not difficult to withdraw, but once you withdraw, it is basically equivalent to setting yourself against all Netherese Mages, and basically, anyone with a sound mind would not voluntarily withdraw.

And once the new Patent Law takes effect, it is almost foreseeable that a large number of new patents will inevitably be generated, and as time passes, there will only be more and more new patents.

Although this can to a large extent promote the popularization of Magic and further development, however—

For ordinary Mage Tower organizations, this is almost no less than a nightmare!

Conversely, the more powerful a Mage Tower organization is, the more it can benefit from the new Patent Law; for example, the Seven Towers—it can be said that once the new Patent Law is implemented, the Seven Towers will be the biggest winner.

If the mandatory fees in the Patent Law were changed to usage-based fees, what kind of scene would appear?

First of all, registering a patent is equivalent to making the relevant data public, and the vast majority of new spells registered are largely for personal use, making it difficult to directly convert them into commercial interests.

Since it is for personal use, as long as the person does not say anything, how would the patent owner know?

And if the Arcane Union were to monitor it, not to mention the potential privacy leakage issues, the cost of monitoring is the most realistic obstacle.

Who would pay this money? The patent owner? Even if a god were to do it, it would not be so easy to monitor every single record of private personal use.

Relying on the Arcane Union to do it, I am afraid that the patent revenue would not even cover the cost of a single high-intensity Scrying!

And if it cannot generate revenue, who would be willing to make the data public for free?

Therefore, in the past, in order to protect the interests of patent registrants, there was the concept of mandatory fees.

But this method of charging, if it were to be used on all patent items, is obviously also inappropriate; for instance, the Communication Magic Tool design plan that Xia Duo wants to register is clearly something that can be easily converted into commercial interests.

And market behavior is very easy to investigate; if this were also subject to mandatory fees, it would be too harsh.

But exactly which patents should use mandatory fees and which should use usage-based fees—there is a great deal of room to maneuver here.

Mage Tower organizations that have the opportunity to participate in the formulation of the new Patent Law will inevitably seek their own interests; for example, for the Seven Towers, it is undoubtedly most beneficial for all patents to be subject to mandatory fees across the board.

Although this hinders the development and popularization of Magic to a certain extent, the Seven Towers themselves already occupy a nearly absolute dominant position; rather than letting a technological explosion occur in places other than the Seven Towers, they might prefer that it not happen at all.

As for other Mage Tower organizations, the larger ones might seek to establish a more perfect patent system, thereby using this system to rapidly strengthen themselves and reach a level equal to, or at least close to, the Seven Towers.

Some smaller organizations mostly only see immediate interests in their eyes, and at the same time, both their comprehensive strength and innovation capabilities are very weak; regardless of what kind of patent it is, not spending money is the most beneficial for them.

Therefore, as long as they have the opportunity to influence the formulation of the patent system, they will almost inevitably move in such a direction.

For Xia Duo, if he were not a Great Arcanist, or even if he were a Great Arcanist but also had many vassals, he would probably waver between perfecting the system and spending as little money as possible.

In reality, he does not have many vassals, so he is still more inclined to perfect the system and use this system to rapidly strengthen himself, narrowing the gap with the Seven Towers.

But such a matter is not something he can decide alone; the attitude of the Seven Towers cannot be bypassed at all.

Therefore, when Iolum mentioned wanting to "reform the existing patent system," Xia Duo did not quite believe it in his heart—not that he did not believe in Iolum's determination, but that he did not believe in the reality that the Seven Towers exist.

Of course, there is no lack of enlightened people within the Seven Towers, but as the existing rulers, I am afraid that conservatism is likely the majority!

Xia Duo is very clear that for rulers, maintaining the status quo is the safest way to rule; once variables appear, regardless of whether they are good or bad, they will inevitably impact the existing ruling order.

Perhaps there are many enlightened people within the Seven Towers, but as members of a collective, they inevitably are influenced by the collective will and collective interests, forced to choose conservatism.

In a sense, when the Seven Towers began to grow strong, moving toward conservatism became inevitable.

Regarding Xia Duo's doubts and worries, Iolum appeared quite calm, "Order reform is of course impossible to complete all at once, I mean—

"Use the private interest dispute between you and Keluosi to cover up the silent reform of the new Patent Law. This time, as long as you can force the other party to make concessions and thereby form a precedent, then if similar events happen later, they can be handled according to the precedent.

"This is an excellent opportunity. Keluosi created a Verdant Tower Alliance in the south; this in itself does not count for much, but he tried to integrate the territories within the Alliance into a whole. Although he temporarily bypassed the Seville Covenant through some indirect means, it is ultimately a violation of the unspoken rule of territorial independence.

"This point is very difficult for both the Seven Towers and others to accept, so as long as you raise an objection, it is almost impossible for others to oppose it. They might just be waiting for someone to step forward right now!"

Iolum spoke in great detail, and at the same time, Xia Duo is not some political novice; right now, Keluosi has committed a public offense, so he has the opportunity to turn a "private grievance" into a "public denunciation."

And in this, the reform of the new patent is merely an insignificant little interlude; perhaps even the word "patent" will not appear in the upcoming Council of Great Arcanists.

The so-called "moistening things silently," is probably just like this.

This is indeed a rare opportunity!

If it were not Keluosi, but someone else, Xia Duo could almost imagine that that group of Great Arcanists would either smooth things over, or take sides, or stir up trouble; it is unlikely they would unanimously oppose anything.

Even if he had privately lobbied, such as finding Kelifu, Zhenna, Bailun, Buluode, and others to jointly propose it, and thereby gained the upper hand.

But others might, for the sake of so-called "not hurting harmony," or maintaining the so-called "struggle without breaking" situation, clearly be able to choose to remain neutral or abstain, yet in the end, they would stand on the opposite side of Xia Duo.

This would be very difficult to handle; basically, it would end up with endless bickering, or simply resorting to force.

Regardless of which one, neither is what Xia Duo wishes to see.