Volume 3: My days in a college fraternity Chapter 104 What is a Surprise
“Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack.”
Tommy bent the joints of his fingers one by one, making crisp sounds.
Sophia, a graduate student at Stanford Law School, stopped talking, frowned slightly, and looked at Tommy's clasped hands. "I thought college students should have learned the basic etiquette of keeping quiet when others are talking, Tommy Hawke."
"Dear Miss Sophia O'Connor, you spent a week telling me that my software would still be identified as plagiarism, and you thoughtfully prepared a lot of information. I am very grateful for everything you have done to help me, so I invite you to have lunch together." Tommy Hawke raised his head and looked at Sophia:
"But none of the case studies in those materials are related to the computer industry, let alone the software industry. They are not very useful for reference, and they make me sleepy. At times like this, I always have to do something to avoid falling asleep."
Sophia put down her fork, wiped her lips, and then said, "I explained to you that the software industry has just started to develop, and there are no representative cases to provide ideas..."
"As far as I know, there was a software industry case that ended in vain. I thought you should be able to collect relevant information in law school." Tommy took a sip of thick soup with a spoon, then sighed to Sophia: "But I was obviously wrong. Come to think of it, a case that ended in vain is not worth recording."
"What case?" Sophia asked curiously after hearing Tommy's words.
Tommy put a piece of fish into his mouth. "IBM, with a market value of billions, sued a newly established software company called Oracle in 1979 with only two thousand US dollars in start-up capital. Strangely, IBM chose to withdraw the lawsuit before the trial, so this case seemed to have never happened to most people in the world. But I guess something must have happened in the middle, because Oracle almost completely copied IBM's database software. Let's put it this way, the first versions of the two software were no different except for the names. Oracle even copied the bugs of IBM's software. So, I'm curious why IBM didn't crush it?"
"So you are actually in trouble and hope that your company can be immune from being sued like the Oracle company you mentioned?" Sophia stared into Tommy's eyes and asked slowly.
"No, we were just discussing the case that happened in 1979 while eating. That's all I know. I thought Stanford Law School would have relevant information to give me an answer, but it obviously didn't, so we went back to the original question, how to define plagiarism. That case could have become a precedent and laid down rules for this emerging industry, but it chose to retreat at the last moment before it was born." Tommy scratched his head with his hand:
"I thought about IBM's decision to withdraw the lawsuit for a long time, about a month. In addition to studying, I tried to find relevant information in the library and think about this question every day. Why didn't the elephant crush the ant to death? It's just that there is too little information about this case, and neither party has made any public statements. Aren't you curious why I'm flexing my fingers out of boredom? Because I've already learned all the information you're providing that might be helpful during that one-month thinking period."
Sophia looked at Tommy in surprise. "You keep saying you're a computer engineering major, but your previous thinking sounds more like a lawyer who is persistent in collecting information or evidence."
"Because I can't afford to hire a lawyer, I have to do these things myself. I can only keep thinking about it until I think of a possibility. So I set up a company to verify whether my speculation is correct and make some money by the way." Tommy looked straight at Sophia without any dodging, and said.
Sophia couldn't stand Tommy's sharp gaze, so she lowered her head to eat to avoid looking at him, and asked, "What's your guess?"
"Large companies in the computer industry have begun to consider the construction of an industry ecosystem," Tommy said affirmatively.
"I think you might need to read more economic books. Remember, this is America. The bigger the company , the more greedy it is to gain wealth." Sophia thought Tommy would say something amazing after thinking for so long, and she lowered her head to listen attentively, but this guy naively attributed IBM's withdrawal of the lawsuit to IBM's concern for the development of the industry? So she couldn't help but smile and raised her head again, mocking Tommy.
Tommy shook his head. "Miss O'Connor, I don't mean they are not greedy. You are wrong to mock me. My meaning is exactly the opposite of what you understand. I mean they are too greedy. Oh, there is another reason for inviting you to dinner. Do you have any cheap but qualified lawyers to recommend to my poor little company? At least the lawyers' language comprehension ability is slightly higher than yours."
Sophia took off her black-framed glasses, rolled up her sleeves in a somewhat embarrassed manner, and looked at Tommy with a threatening tone: "This sentence makes me want to throw coffee on the face of someone who deserves a beating."
"Remember not to add three sugar cubes before pouring, one will do. As far as I know, that person is used to drinking low-sugar or sugar-free flavors." Tommy said to Sophia with a smile.
Sophia saw Tommy's open-handed expression, welcoming him to do it, and finally she could only smile helplessly and said to him, "You are the most shameless computer science student I have ever seen. Aren't all the students in that major wearing glasses, forgetting to comb their hair, always wearing clothes without any characteristics, and being taciturn?"
"What makes you judge how thick my skin is, just because I like to drink coffee?"
Sophia shook her head slightly and said the reason why she judged this guy to be thick-skinned: "No, because you always look at me directly and with greed. An aggressive guy like you should not lack girlfriends, right?"
"I haven't thought about dating you, Miss O'Connor. My greedy question is, are you interested in changing your legal aid work from 1VN to 1V1 at the aid center? I'm currently lacking a professional who can deal with lawyers, courts, or various groups, but I don't have enough money to hire a legal consultant who can give me all kinds of legal advice or opinions at any time. I asked about the price, and the one who charged the lowest price told me that if the weekly salary is less than 500 yuan, there will be no deal." Tommy sighed and said to Sophia with a wry smile: "So, are you interested? About 80 yuan a week, this is the highest price I offer?"
Sophia was stunned by the number Tommy said. It took her a few seconds to come back to her senses. She smiled and said, "You quoted a weekly salary of eighty dollars to a graduate student at Stanford Law School? Believe me, you don't deserve to be splashed with a cup of coffee now, because you not only insulted me, but also Stanford and the vast laws of the United States."
"How much do you get paid for sitting in the assistance center and providing all kinds of weird legal advice to those students? Can you make one or two hundred dollars a week as a part-time worker?" Tommy smiled self-deprecatingly, lowered his head to look at his hands, then raised his head again and asked Sophia.
Sophia said naturally: "No, I didn't get that much money, but it gave me a sense of social responsibility, as well as the communication and responsiveness to deal with different people."
"OK, everything can be discussed as long as you don't charge any money. How about this, I can guarantee that if you are willing to help me 1V1, if nothing goes wrong, no matter whether my company wins or loses, you will be recorded in the history of American legal precedent research. At the same time, I guarantee that you will be able to obtain the abilities you want faster." Tommy became energetic when he heard that Sophia did not charge money at the legal aid center. He looked at Sophia with shining eyes again and said.
Sophia took Tommy's words as a joke to make her happy: "My father also said something similar. He would coax me and say that Santa Claus would come to put gifts in the stockings I prepared for Christmas. Tommy, you need to have more surprising jokes to make girls happy. Although I am surprised that you can say the word precedent, which most ordinary people don't understand at all."
"If you are willing to sign a confidentiality agreement, I can show you how Santa Claus named Tommy Hawke prepares gifts. By the way, I can also tell you, Miss O'Connor, what a surprise is." Tommy put down the spoon, clenched his fists on the table, leaned forward slightly, looked into Sophia's brown eyes, and said slowly but forcefully:
"You can use your Stanford Law School graduate's language comprehension ability to judge whether I am joking or not."
…
Dicks Law Office located in the heart of Palo Alto.
"Mr. Tommy Hawke, I'm very happy that you finally decided to use your company's money to hire a legal professional." Walter Dellinger, a partner at Dicks Law Firm, smiled so much when he heard Tommy introduce Sophia to him.
Dicks Law Firm is the legal advisor for the SSD Stanford University branch. If he wasn't afraid of losing SSD's business, he wouldn't have done some legal work for Tommy's Actor Company. Moreover, it is obvious that Actor Company is in trouble now, and more and more work needs to be done by lawyers.
Therefore, Walter has repeatedly suggested to Tommy that he should find a professional who understands law to join the company as soon as possible to help Actor sort out his thoughts during his legal crisis, and at least reduce the workload of this free lawyer.
After all, he was only helping Actor do some basic work such as reviewing contract terms for SSD's sake, but he didn't want to be exploited as free labor by Tommy Hawke.
When Walter saw Miss Sophia O'Connor, he had no interest in knowing whether she was a student or a professional. He just wanted to give her the work that Tommy Hawke had entrusted him with. As for whether it was completed or not, it had nothing to do with him.
"There are a total of 176 now. Fortunately, there is plenty of time, which gives them enough time to come up with the summary topics. The contact information is also included, and the telephone and pager numbers are clearly sorted out. For the sake of confidentiality, I completed all these tedious tasks independently, and even my assistants were not involved." Walter opened his locked file box, took out a document from it, handed it to Tommy, and complained with a smile.
Tommy handed the folder to Sophia beside him without even looking at it. "In the short term, she will give me advice on Actor's legal affairs, or attend necessary meetings on my behalf."
"One hundred and seventy-six copies? One hundred and seventy-six copies!" Sophia's hands were shaking as she took the folder, and she repeated the question in a low voice beside Tommy.
Seeing Sophia's ghost expression, Walter laughed: "Yes, one hundred and seventy-six copies, you are just a student, right?"
“Yes, I haven’t received my graduate diploma yet.” Sophia said to Walter: “You mean, only students will be shocked?”
"Almost. At the beginning, I was also a little surprised, but I was only surprised that Mr. Tommy Hawke was so young, but his methods were like those of a middle-aged man. I was not surprised by the number of summaries. For people like us, it is a good thing that the employer is not an idiot. At least now Tommy Hawke's methods have proved that he is not an idiot." Walter smiled at Sophia and said, then stretched out his hand to Tommy, shook it and said:
"Tommy, my work is done. Don't bother me next time if you don't want to pay. I know you will make a lot of money if you win. So, if you need a lawyer to provide legal advice or any business after you make money, please remember to consider our Dicks Law Firm first. However, our firm does not provide free consultation."
"I will, Attorney Deringer, not to waste your precious time. See you next time." Tommy shook hands with Walter and said goodbye. He called out to Sophia, who was still looking through the folder out of curiosity: "We should go, Miss O'Connor."
After leaving the law firm and sitting in the passenger seat of Tommy's old car, Sophia hugged the folder tightly to her chest, looked at Tommy, and asked in surprise: "One hundred and seventy-six? Oh my God! And it's just the first round?"
"These are amulets to ensure that Actor will not be knocked down in the first round. In the second round, we need to see if big companies like IBM are as greedy as I guessed." Tommy turned the key and started the car: "Keep these materials safe, contact them, and make sure that each summary is not repeated or perfunctory."
Sophia held the document, closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, then said, "After listening to your plan, I now believe that whether Actor survives or not, I will indeed be recorded as a participant in the judgment precedent."
She turned her head and looked at Tommy, who was driving with a blank expression, and said in a voice full of excitement and trepidation: "Tommy Hawke, you are a lunatic."
"I know you like crazy people, right? Because I noticed that the way you look at me now is as greedy as when I looked at you in the restaurant." Tommy held the steering wheel, stared ahead, and said confidently:
"So, do you know what a surprise is?"
