Chapter 284

After operating the USB flash drive, Li Dongling toyed with it in his hand. The USB flash drive in his hand now could only be considered a first-generation product. To make USB technology fully mature and reach the transmission speeds and memory sizes of later generations, it would likely require several more generations of technological updates.

A truly mature USB flash drive would probably take a few more years of effort. This was just like smartphones and electric vehicles; they all needed updates and iterations for technology to continuously upgrade.

But that didn't hinder Dongling High-Tech from releasing the current USB flash drive. After all, there was absolutely no object of comparison. Compared to floppy disks and CD burners, the USB flash drive was almost a generational gap; crushing the opponent was not a problem.

"How much memory can the current USB flash drive have at most?!" Li Dongling turned his head and asked Chen Tao.

"Currently, we can make a 32M memory USB flash drive, and we are currently working on the 64M technology!"

Li Dongling nodded upon hearing this. USB flash drives with 16M, 32M, and 64M memory sizes would basically be the mainstream hard drive memory sizes for the next few years.

"What about patents and technology? Have the USB flash drive patents been approved overseas?!" Li Dongling asked the most critical question.

The patent issue had always been a difficult problem plaguing countless domestic companies. Who knows how many companies had stumbled over this? Some were set up by foreign companies and blackmailed with patents, while others were simply unfamiliar with the rules of the game. Even though it was clearly developed domestically first, it was snatched up by foreign companies, and in the end, they had to pay the foreign companies instead!

Dongling High-Tech should be the company in China that pays the most attention and importance to patents, especially overseas patent layout. After all, the first battle of Dongling High-Tech's rise was the lawsuit with Microsoft, and that lawsuit directly determined the life and death of Dongling High-Tech.

Now, Dongling High-Tech's Legal Department had a team specifically responsible for handling patent legal affairs for Dongling High-Tech, registering patents for Dongling High-Tech globally, as well as acquiring patents and suing those companies that infringed on Dongling High-Tech's patents.

Li Dongling adopted a reward system for this legal team, meaning that in addition to their normal salary, they also received a share based on the scale of the lawsuit's claim amount.

In the previous life, Netac, which first developed the USB flash drive, encountered patent trouble. When the USB flash drive became popular, a large wave of companies jumped out, including Jin Shidun, Sony, and others, all fighting Netac for the USB flash drive patent. In the end, they fought I don't know how many lawsuits and spent several years before barely obtaining the patent rights. Even so, many companies remained unconvinced.

Relying on this model, Dongling High-Tech's patent legal team could be described as extremely formidable. Many top lawyers had joined, and while they wouldn't dare say they could compare to the legal teams of Disney, Nintendo, Qualcomm, the "Nanshan Invincible," or the "Long Gang Invincible," they were still very strong.

This was very similar to the vulture lawyers in America; they all helped their employers win lawsuits and then divided the compensation they got back.

"The patent legal team has already cooperated with professional third-party patent consulting firms and public relations companies to apply for patent protection for the USB flash drive globally, especially in Japan, America, Canada, Europe, and other places!"

Flipping through a few pages of documents, Li Dongling saw that in many places, the Shenzhou USB flash drive's patents had already been approved, and there were also some under review, which he estimated would be approved before long.

Therefore, Dongling High-Tech directly cooperated with professional patent consulting firms and public relations companies, and under the influence of "money power," the USB flash drive patents were quickly approved in Japan, America, and many countries in old Europe.

But in the tech industry, Dongling High-Tech's patent legal team was also somewhat famous, searching the world for companies that dared to infringe on Dongling High-Tech's patents, then suing them and extorting a sum—no, that's not right, it was reasonably, legally, and compliantly and justly making the other party pay the price they deserved. After all, these were the patent legal team's lawyers making money for themselves; how could they not be proactive? This was much more profitable than working in a law firm and taking commissions for lawsuits!

As long as they won the lawsuit, the patent compensation claimed back would be divided among the lawyers of this patent legal team according to a ratio!

Chen Tao took out several documents that had been prepared long ago and handed them to Li Dongling. If they followed the procedure and applied for USB flash drive patents at patent offices around the world, they would certainly be approved, but no one could say for sure when that would happen.

And the reason why they were able to get back the USB flash drive patent, besides the stubbornness of Netac's founder, the most important point was that Netac was backed by Toshiba. With Toshiba's backing, Netac had the money to keep dragging it out with companies like Sony. Otherwise, if it were another company, they would have long since run out of money to fight the lawsuit and declared bankruptcy.

And Netac also realized its listing by relying on the USB flash drive, lying down and making money for decades. The two things they did most in the future were: first, fighting USB flash drive patent lawsuits, and second, collecting rent...

Now, the USB flash drive wouldn't encounter those problems. If Jin Shidun, Sony, and others dared to reach out, Dongling High-Tech's patent legal team would have to step in. In their eyes, going to war with companies like Jin Shidun and Sony would yield more profit. What kind of playstyle did the vulture lawyer team have? They would make trouble even when they were wrong, let alone when they were right!

Putting down the USB flash drive and those documents, Li Dongling asked Chen Tao another question: "How many of the USB flash drive's components require overseas patent authorization or need to be imported?"

The USB flash drive needed to use flash memory technology, and the first to play with memory was Toshiba. Regardless of his feelings toward Toshiba, it was indeed one of the hegemons of the tech industry now, and Toshiba's shadow could be seen in almost every field.

Li Dongling was also somewhat helpless about this. When they were making Shenzhou digital cordless phones, they were constrained by Toshiba's chips. Li Dongling raised funds to build Dongxin Semiconductor, threw countless money into it, and invited Academician Ni Guangnan to take the helm, finally launching the Sirius chip and getting rid of the reliance on Toshiba chips, which were always raising prices.

But just as he jumped out of one pit, he fell into another pit dug by Toshiba. Flash memory technology and patents were both held in Toshiba's hands, so they definitely couldn't bypass Toshiba.

Netac in the previous life was also backed by Toshiba, which was why they defeated a host of opponents. But what was the cost? Don't think that Toshiba was doing charity. By helping Netac win the lawsuit, Toshiba also received huge profits from the USB flash drive.

"Currently, for the entire USB flash drive patent and technology, Dongling High-Tech holds over 75% of the patents, but the flash memory patent requires Toshiba's authorization!"

Chen Tao said, "However, the Technical Department is also accelerating the research and development of flash memory technology to prepare for bypassing Toshiba's flash memory patent wall, but... this will take some time!"

In his words, Chen Tao was also somewhat helpless. As a latecomer and chaser, since the establishment of Dongling High-Tech, they had been constantly throwing money into technological R&D. The people in the Technical Department were certainly not sparing any effort, but the gap with old-school tech giants like Toshiba was still visible to the naked eye. This required time and opportunities to solve; it wasn't something that could be achieved overnight.

Li Dongling didn't rush to pressure Chen Tao and the Technical Department. A broken ship still has three pounds of iron, not to mention Toshiba, this ship, which although somewhat old now, wasn't leaking yet.

However, next, the whole of Japan would lose thirty years, not to mention Toshiba. For Toshiba, the future would basically be a downhill road all the way, without even stepping on the brakes, and even stepping on the gas.

"Before the USB flash drive goes on sale, regarding those flash memory authorization agreements with Toshiba, Dongling High-Tech must obtain Toshiba's flash memory technology. If necessary, we can pay more authorization fees. The flash memory patent must be obtained!"

Li Dongling instructed. Even if they had to pay a higher price, Li Dongling didn't want to work for Toshiba for nothing.

"Once the flash memory technology is obtained, the USB flash drive project team will be reorganized into a memory project team. In addition to upgrading the USB flash drive technology, we can also develop memory sticks and solid-state drives for computers, as well as SD memory cards for mobile phones, cameras, laptops, and other micro-digital products!"

Since the money was spent, it certainly couldn't be spent in vain. If Dongling High-Tech didn't make something out of the flash memory technology obtained from Toshiba at a high price, wouldn't that be a loss?!

How big is the USB flash drive market? Solid-state drives that can be used in laptops, and SD memory cards used in mobile phones—that's the big head. Just think about how many laptops and mobile phones are shipped in a year, and you'll know the market for solid-state drives and SD cards.

Samsung in the previous life, as the hegemon of solid-state drives and memory sticks, played this industry clearly. They would catch fire every few days, and then once they caught fire, solid-state drives would rise in price. They were clearly low-end solid-state drives, yet they were sold to the domestic market as high-end goods. But at that time, Samsung controlled the entire industry and held the pricing power. Even if they wanted to resist, they had no chance at all.

It wasn't until the emergence of Yangtze Memory, after launching domestic memory sticks and solid-state drives, that Samsung's "frequent fire" problem was immediately cured. By the way, they used a price war to help Samsung's storage business department solve the problem of having too many personnel, causing the storage departments of both Samsung and Hynix to start layoffs.

Li Dongling didn't expect the storage department, as one of Dongling High-Tech's computer peripheral departments, to be able to cover the sky with one hand like Samsung. It was enough as long as they weren't being strangled. Of course, if there was an opportunity, it would be even better to backhand and manipulate those foreign computer manufacturers just like Samsung manipulated the domestic market. Everything has a first time!

(End of chapter)