Zhu Jingyuan thought about his future goals, and then instinctively thought of Ming's potential enemies. While he was developing, he had to find ways to contain his enemies.
After Zhu Jingyuan waited for the atmosphere to subside a little, he went to ask Li Rui, the director of the Arms Department of the Ministry of Industry:
"Before the war started, did we have a patent agreement with the European and American countries? Can we mutually recognize patents or give priority to applications?"
Li Rui shook his head naturally:
"No, we mentioned it several times in the beginning, but Xiyi always found reasons to shirk it, and there was never any substantive negotiation.
“Because they know very well that once they mutually recognize our patents with Daming, they will not be able to copy our technology for free.
"When the war started, His Majesty even included this matter in the declaration of war..."
Zhu Jingyuan now knew:
"Then we Ming people can go to the European and American countries to register companies, and can we directly apply for patents in their countries?"
This question made Li Rui obviously stunned, but he still subconsciously explained:
“There are many countries of the same level in Xiyi, so there are relatively mature norms and systems for connecting affairs between countries.
“They did not specifically exclude us from Daming, so we from Daming can also register companies with them and apply for patents in their countries.
"But the question is... is your highness going to apply for a patent from Xiyi... apply for a patent for a flying machine?"
Zhu Jingyuan smiled and nodded and said:
"Yes, I'm just going to apply for a patent there."
At this time, the craftsmen around him were all confused. Wang Zhenyi asked in confusion:
"Your Highness, if you go to the West to apply for a patent, isn't this going to directly reveal our design ideas to those Westerners?"
The original purpose of patents is to secure short-term exclusive benefits in exchange for long-term technology disclosure.
Therefore, the patent protection period is up to 20 years, and theoretically cannot be extended.
When applying for a patent at the same time, you must clearly explain your design ideas in the documentation you submit.
It is equivalent to disclosing it to the public through the patent office, explaining how you designed this thing, so that others can refer to it and learn to make it.
Although there are policies from above and countermeasures from below, patent protection has gradually been transformed into patent barriers, but the original concept was this.
That's why Wang Zhenyi asked this question.
Zhu Jingyuan didn't take it seriously at all, but explained with a smile:
“In fact, there are no particularly big technical difficulties in today’s aircraft, and it only takes a few ideas to succeed.
“Our biggest advantage over Xiyi in aircraft is that the engine power density is slightly higher.
"According to the news I see every day, there are people in Xiyi who are also studying flying machines, and there are several groups of people.
“Now that the war is over, as long as our aircraft are sold to civilians, they will be able to secretly purchase imitations.
“Rather than letting this result happen, it’s better to apply for a patent from them and then act as a patent troll there.”
Li Rui, Wang Zhenyi and the craftsmen reacted immediately.
Instead of waiting for them to copy it on their own, it is better to apply for patent re-authorization there.
Craftsmen originally understood this truth, but during the world war that lasted for more than ten years, both sides completely ignored the enemy's patents in their own countries.
After more than ten years of habit formation, I did not immediately change my thinking after the armistice. It was useless to even think about applying for a patent in Thailand and Spain.
When Zhu Jingyuan mentioned it, everyone understood it, but patent authorization is authorization. So what is a patent troll?
So Li Rui asked as a representative:
"Your Highness...what is a patent troll?"
Zhu Jingyuan felt inexplicably happy when he thought of this:
"I overused patents. I went to European and American countries to apply for various aircraft patents, and then collected licensing fees from the Europeans.
“They charge the upper limit stipulated by law, or the upper limit acceptable to the market, and there is no way to reduce or reduce it.
“Under such circumstances, most of their manufacturers should not pay patent royalties, and there will definitely be many manufacturers secretly producing them.
“We also left it alone for the time being and just collected evidence secretly.
“After their products are launched on the market, we will hire a group of smart Thai and Spanish lawyers to file infringement lawsuits against these manufacturers.
“We are not trying to make a lot of money in the West, our purpose is to drive aviation industry manufacturers to the brink of bankruptcy and turn aircraft into niche machines in the West.
“Clamping down on the development of their aviation industry while taking away most of the industry’s profits.
"Without a civilian industry foundation, even if the militaries of the Thai and Western countries develop, design and produce their own aircraft, the final cost of aircraft use will be much higher than ours.
“If the governments of various countries in Thailand and Spain come forward and do not recognize or ignore our aircraft patents, then this is the reason for us to impose sanctions and embargoes on them.
"Of course, they can also be treated differently to divide the Western countries, and it can also be used as a reason to declare war in the next war.
“Or it may be stuck at the critical point of death, barely able to hold the Thai and Western aviation industry back for a while.
"Until we are truly preparing for war, we will kill the remaining manufacturers again."
The scene suddenly fell into silence, with only the sound of the wind around and the whine of the plane in the sky still lingering in the ears of the confused people.
Craftsmen with relatively simple and pure thinking were exposed to His Highness Jingyuan's unique way of thinking for the first time, and they were a little... shocked.
This series of operations is really rogue.
The term patent troll is really too appropriate.
Then everyone felt very happy.
His Highness Jingyuan holds the basic patent of the aircraft. If he were to do this in the Ming Dynasty, he would be able to torment the relevant manufacturers to death.
However, His Highness not only did not do this, but instead reduced licensing fees as much as possible and worked hard to find ways to promote the development of the industry.
His Highness clearly distinguishes who is one of our own and who is an outsider.
It's really... interesting.
Zhu Jingyuan looked at the silence around him and suddenly asked with some confusion:
"What's wrong? Is my plan bad? Or does everyone think it's too bad?"
The craftsmen suddenly woke up, and the scene immediately became lively.
"Okay, of course, that's great."
"Your Highness is really far-sighted, I am ashamed of myself!"
"Fundamentally restricting the opponent is a conspiracy!"
"Those Westerners keep copying our stuff, we should find a way to deal with them!"
"In the future, if there are similar technologies that cannot be kept secret, we will do this to them."
"We set up a company specifically in Taixi, recruiting elite local lawyers who admire our Ming Dynasty, and specialize in litigating cases with local manufacturers."
The craftsmen were all smiling, admiring and coming up with ideas together. The testing ground was filled with a happy atmosphere.
Zhu Jingyuan was also very happy.
In terms of aircraft equipment, the most ideal goal is of course that Ming Dynasty has aircraft unilaterally, but the enemy does not have any at all.
But this is obviously impossible.
Although the technological level of the European and European countries is generally a few to more than ten years behind the Ming Dynasty.
But this is not the world after the technological revolution, or even after the Cold War. At that time, the high and new technologies of the superpowers were incomprehensible to small countries.
We are still in the era of the Industrial Revolution, and industry entry and technical barriers are still very low.
In history, the Wright brothers were just two bicycle mechanics before they invented the airplane...
Even the most "high-tech" technology is easy to imitate and catch up with. This is why the countries in Europe and the West can keep up with the Ming Dynasty so closely.
Historically, the United States and Germany directly surpassed the United Kingdom in many places during the Second Industrial Revolution.
After the Ming Dynasty lost the direct guidance of the time travellers, if the local base was not large enough, it might even be unable to maintain its absolute technological advantage like the British.
Now that the Thai and Western countries have sufficient industrial technology, it is only a matter of time before they build their own aircraft.
To take a step back, even if the other party really can't find the correct route, it makes no sense for Zhu Jingyuan to keep the aircraft technology completely secret.
Because the difficulty of keeping something secret is roughly inversely proportional to the number of people in contact with it. The more people who know about it, the harder it is to keep it secret.
If Zhu Jingyuan wanted to cultivate the aviation atmosphere among the people of Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to limit the use of aircraft to a few people.
If you want to rely on aircraft to win, you cannot rely on a small number of secretly trained pilots. The results of that can be compared to Japan in World War II.
Before guided weapons mature, all weapons must win by quantity, and must rely on sufficient quantity to accumulate hit bases.
The same goes for airplanes. Until the end of World War II, air combat was a dense and large group of aircraft, a bit like queuing to kill in the musket era.
Historically, when the Americans encircled and annihilated the Yamato fleet, the enemy had a battleship Yamato, a cruiser, and eight destroyers as escorts.
The Americans' own TF58 task force has a total of eleven aircraft carriers, six battleships, 11 cruisers, and more than 30 destroyers.
A total of 386 aircraft were dispatched, and a total of 131 torpedoes, 150 250-pound aerial bombs, 180 500-pound aerial bombs, and 75 1,000-pound aerial bombs were airdropped.
The final result was the sinking of 1 battleship Yamato, 1 light cruiser, 4 destroyers, and seriously damaging 1 destroyer.
Such an incredible advantage finally allowed the enemy to lose three destroyers.
This is because the Yamato fleet has no aircraft carrier escort or air power cover, and is basically the result of a unilateral attack by the United States.
Therefore, in the current era, it is necessary to have a sufficient air power base to ensure victory in long-term and sustained air battles.
It would be impossible to maintain secrecy with such a broad base of numbers.
Unless weapons are extremely powerful and can suddenly change the situation of the war, that is, those real "big killers", secrecy tactics are of little significance.
The normal operation is to promote it as much as possible in your own country, while limiting the development of the industry in potentially hostile countries as much as possible.
The most typical plan is to go abroad to become a patent troll, and then cooperate with economic sanctions and threats of force...
