Chapter 3225: The Patent Barrier Protected by Divine Power

In addition, Iolum dedicating the 【Mythallar】 to the Lady of Mysteries to obtain a form of patent-like protection also requires the use of Divine Grace; if one did not need a patent, one could instead obtain Divine Grace.

That is to say, besides repairing the Magic Net, spreading Magic and creating new Spells can also earn Divine Grace.

In other words, with what Xia Duo has already achieved in his Territory, he has actually been earning Divine Grace for a long time, but he still needs it; aside from using it to increase the limit of Spells stored in the Magic Net, what he cares about most is the innovative patent protection from the Goddess.

Because in the foreseeable future, he will inevitably produce a large number of innovative achievements in the field of Magic, and without protection, perhaps he too would gradually become conservative.

Within Netheril, there is the Seville Covenant to protect innovative patents, but what about outside of Netheril, or even outside of the Northland Alliance?

Therefore, from the perspective of future gains, Xia Duo actually hopes that the Elven Chief God can expand the Divine Office to the field of Magic, because in this way, Elves would also have similar guarantees for magical innovation.

This would be equivalent to the Lady of Mysteries' system and the Elven Chief God's system mutually recognizing patents, although such mutual patent recognition could also be carried out within the framework of the Northland Alliance.

But mortals are selfish, and all sorts of underhanded tricks emerge one after another; the credibility of gods is actually higher, and they do not care much about the gains and losses of mortals, but are more focused on the survival of their own domains.

Especially in cases involving the Lady of Mysteries, this kind of patent protection built on the credibility of a Divine Office is inevitably far superior to a patent system constructed by mortals.

Of course, the shortcomings of the mortal system lie more in the high cost of breach and the difficulty of providing evidence for breach; in the future, as exchanges within the Northland Alliance become closer and various laws and regulations become more perfect, the mortal system will certainly become popular again.

On Earth, cases where the first mover developed a market only to be overtaken by latecomers are numerous, and Xia Duo is unwilling to become a stepping stone for the Elves.

Technology can indeed be protected, but will the Lady of Mysteries protect functionality?

Regarding the technology, there is the Adaptive Mythal Framework, and the initial inspiration can also be traced back to Arcane Fire, but for users, this is not a Mythallar function they can use; the Distributed Node design is the same—it is technology, but not a function.

The Tower of Time's Communication Mythallar is already in use within Netheril; now, it is only one step away from being promoted to the Elf World: patent protection!

No one can stay ahead forever, and the strong will not expect others to always lag behind; doing what one should do is enough.

Instead, one must worry about whether one can maintain their original intention in the future and not harvest too ruthlessly.

But wanting to block it off completely is also impossible; not only is it difficult to exhaust so many new design ideas in practice, but even if it were possible, such a practice of completely blocking others' paths to innovation would, in all likelihood, not be approved by the Lady of Mysteries.

This is also where the Tower of Time's Communication Mythallar differs from the Traditional Elven Mythallar; it does not need to expand the coverage of the Mythallar, but changes naturally as Nodes are added or moved, making it impossible for others to guard against.

Therefore, if he wants to apply for a patent for the Communication Mythallar, he must consider setting up more barriers to prevent the Elves from imitating it; this also means that the patents he needs to apply for will not just be related to the Adaptive Mythallar and Distributed Nodes, but he must also consider the direction of Elven imitation—

This is also the traditional tactic in the internet industry of his hometown, and applying it to the magic world will likewise crush the Elves.

As long as he completes the user accumulation for the Communication Mythallar, he won't have to worry so much anymore; the massive user base and user stickiness will allow him to continuously conquer territory in different fields and overtake others in various ways.

But at present, the role of Divine Grace is irreplaceable, so after being reminded by Iolum, Xia Duo was tempted; in the past, he never dared to promote the Communication Mythallar vigorously, a large part of which was due to the fear of Elven imitation.

Not to mention, once he starts promoting it, he will likely learn from his peers back home and use low-price or even free strategies, focusing on keeping the users first; as long as there is a user base, there is no need to worry about losing money now.

In this situation, the approach on Earth is usually for the first mover to use a massive user base and user stickiness as a defensive barrier; the app itself cannot be prohibited from being used by others.

After all, using the gods' system requires paying Divine Grace, and Divine Grace is not easily obtained; one could even say it becomes harder to obtain the further one goes.

But what gods consider is not exactly the same as what mortals consider; the Lady of Mysteries only needs to ensure there are other paths for innovation and does not need to consider the costs of other paths, which is the basis for Xia Duo's containment strategy to be feasible.

And on Xia Duo's side, the current user base and user stickiness of the Communication Mythallar are far from reaching the point of ignoring competitors; in other words, once a competitor appears, the Tower of Time's Communication Mythallar is very likely to be a wasted effort for him.

At that time, it might not be patent protection, but potentially direct open-sourcing.

Of course, the premise is to let him complete the user accumulation for a platform; it doesn't necessarily have to be the Communication Mythallar. The Void Warehouse actually has the potential to be that main platform, but the Void Warehouse requires too much investment; it is not like the Communication Mythallar, which is more about R&D costs, and he can even earn extra money by selling matching Communication Magic Tools!

Xia Duo hopes that the functions of the Tower of Time's Communication Mythallar will be protected, but at the same time, he knows that such protection is actually unfavorable to innovation, and innovation is what the Lady of Mysteries encourages.

A Mythallar can obtain a patent, and theoretically, a Communication Mythallar can too, but a Mythallar has only one core function, which is actually the Arcanist's Arcane Fire; technology and function are unified, but the Communication Mythallar is different.

Of course, if the Elves think of a low-cost scheme that does not infringe on the patent, then he cannot say anything more; if one's skills are inferior to others, it should be so, and he will just have to find ways to catch up or build a moat in other fields.

With the Adaptive Mythal Framework + Distributed Node design, as long as the Elves are determined to crack and imitate it, it is almost inevitable that they can replicate it, similar to various app clones on Earth.

If he can protect the Communication Mythallar patent, then he can worry-free and boldly develop the Elven market; with the Northland Alliance's trade agreement in place, Elven nations cannot refuse. This was originally a sharp weapon used by the Elves to harvest small countries or countries with backward commerce, but for Xia Duo, it is also a magic treasure that can be utilized.

Therefore, Xia Duo choosing to make the Communication Mythallar his main platform is not just simply referring to the experience from his hometown, but also has realistic considerations from the magic world.

Even if others do not copy it completely and only imitate the roughly similar functions, that is troublesome enough.

In this situation, the gods' patent protection might only be used to safeguard those most important innovative achievements; in more cases, it still has to rely on the system constructed by mortals.

That is, how the Traditional Mythallar replicates the functions of the Tower of Time's Communication Mythallar, and then he applies for a product patent where technology and function are unified for that scheme; perhaps he needs to apply for a few more types to block the possibility of Elven imitation as much as possible.

By then, he will shout "free trade," and no matter how stifled the Elves feel, they will have to open their doors obediently; even if they set up various restrictions, at worst, he can sell Communication Magic Tools that can serve as Mythallar Nodes in Evereska.

And due to the existence of patent protection and the rapid development of Magic, innovation will also become more and more frequent.