Time Travel: 2014

Eve Carly thought to herself, forget about those patents.

Any patent listed is always marked with an asterisk:

A new type of video detection method based on frame extraction image analysis, based on...

A dignified doctor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is doing sideways every day, which is simply a shame for MIT.

…

Eve Kali used the idle computer in Ewald Cherry's office to log into the official patent transaction website of the US Patent Office.

In the search bar, after Eve Carly typed "LIN HUI."

You will enter the personal public interface of LIN HUI.

In this interface, Eve Carly can not only see the public patents owned by LIN HUI's personal patent column.

You can also see a series of developments in LIN HUI’s intellectual property rights.

In the dynamic list of LIN HUI, Eve Carly discovered that LIN HUI is indeed seeking a series of patent acquisitions.

As expected, the patent "A New Method for Text Judgment, Screening and Comparison" is among the patents that LIN HUI is seeking to acquire.

Moreover, the intended purchase price offered by LIN HUI was actually US$700,000.

Although this acquisition price is not the most expensive of the several patents that LIN HUI is seeking to acquire.

But $700,000 is considered a relatively high price.

Although she has always lived in an ivory tower, Eve Carly does not have no concept of money.

She works at the MIT Natural Language Processing Research Center.

His main salary is about the same as that of an assistant professor, and his annual salary is about a little over 140,000 US dollars.

Of course, this is just salary.

After counting all kinds of messy project bonuses, she can also have an after-tax income of more than 300,000 US dollars.

In other words, the purchase price of 700,000 US dollars now in front of her is almost equivalent to her income from two years of work.

Seven hundred thousand dollars was undoubtedly a windfall for her.

But will pie really fall from the sky?

Eve Carly shook her head disapprovingly.

Ewald Cherry: "Are you unwilling? This is a rare and good opportunity."

Eve Carly: "Don't you think this is strange?"

Ewald Cherry: "What could be wrong?"

Eve Carly: "Let's put it this way, what would you think when a leader in a field suddenly buys enlightenment books one day?"

Ewald Cherry: "So you are struggling with this matter? I can only say that you have seen too little, too young and too simple.

In fact, leaders in the field of science not only buy this kind of enlightenment books, but also often buy nearly one million US dollars in one purchase...

…Do you know my father? "

Eve Carly: "Now that you know your father is the distinguished school director, how many times are you going to mention it?"

Ewald Cherry: "The school director is just an identity that my father disdains to mention. My father is a doctor in computer science. He received his doctorate at the age of 31. Although he received a doctorate in computer science at this age, A degree does not constitute genius.

But you have to know how many PhDs they had in computer science at that time.

In short, this degree was far more valuable at that time than today's computer science doctorate. Later, my father held many important positions in scientific research positions for a long time. Although such a person is not a top expert in the scientific field, he should be what you call a leader.

However, there is such an outstanding person. When I was a child, I would buy those enlightenment books published by Councilor Herlus Caton almost every year. They were nonsense and had obvious logical errors. And almost every time, he would buy nearly a hundred books at once. Ten thousand dollars, and he didn’t even read these books after buying them...

When I was a kid, I couldn't understand why my father would buy these crappy books that he didn't even read.

Later I learned that my father did not invest in these reading materials, but in the people who wrote the books behind them.

For the same reason, LIN HUI invests heavily in an algorithm that you think is worthless.

It's very possible that what he cares about is not the "A New Method for Text Judgment, Screening and Comparison" algorithm patent itself, but what he cares about is you who got the patent...

After all, it is easy to know from public information on the Internet that you are the main person in charge of the extractive summary algorithm at the MIT NLP Research Center.

There is an old Chinese proverb: If someone throws away a peach, throw it back with a pear.

I think that since LIN HUI has extended an olive branch to you in terms of patent transactions, you can definitely try to make a deal.

You have nothing to lose anyway.

Seven hundred thousand dollars is the next best thing, and this is probably the beginning of your cooperation.

Maybe you can make a decision after you go to China and meet LIN HUI in person.

This is why I advocate that you come with us to China.

But I suggest you get in touch through patent negotiations now. "

After hearing these remarks, Eve Carly was already a little tempted.

It is undoubtedly a good opportunity to have a certain intersection with LIN HUI.

And the transaction amount of US$700,000 is also very important, although she does not value money very much.

But it has to be said that the feeling of being choked by the financial owner is not pleasant.

However, Eve Carly still has concerns about patent transfer: "You just said that I am the backbone of our group. As a backbone, I sell technology patents to a competitor that once surpassed us, even though the patent itself may not be What technical leakage is involved, but what will my peers think of me? Will they misunderstand me?"

Ewald Cherry: "I hope they get the wrong idea soon..."

Eve Carley:? ? ?

Ewald Cherry: "Do you still think they are companions? Today's colleagues may be tomorrow's competitors.

Without enough money to sustain it, your group is probably now divided.

In fact, as far as I know, many people in your group have been in private contact with companies like Google and Yahoo.

And your trip to the Eastern Kingdoms together may well be your last collective action.

In this case, selling patents early can not only make money, but also allow these people to obtain false information that they think is valuable to harm other technology giants. Why not? "

After hearing the news, Eve found it difficult to accept it.

Is the so-called competition in the direction of algorithms a zero-sum game?

The winner takes all, and the lagging side really gets nothing.

The honor, partners, and money that were once gone?

It can be seen that Eve has a lot of fluctuations.

Ewald Cherry secretly shook his head.

How can there be so many things in this world that remain unchanged?

What's more, the computer industry is one of the industries with the highest job-hopping rate.

The world of algorithms is inherently cold, except for the occasional bug that can bring some warmth.

"Okay, you can think about it slowly! I'm going to get busy. I'll let you know when I leave!"

After saying this, Ewald Cherry left the office.

Although it was difficult for Eve Carly to accept this fact for a while, she quickly calmed down.

Whether it is a zero-sum game or a non-zero-sum game.

Although her team lost the competition with LIN HUI, she was convinced of the loss.