Chapter 178 Technology Loss

Hearing Lin Zhenhua's timid request, He Haifeng smiled and said, "Your unhappy request is enough to mention to Minister Gao. Our Sports Reform Commission is a Qingshui Yamen, but it doesn't have a penny."

Gaozu Xing nodded and said, "Well, I have heard that there is a manager from Xiaolin in Jiangnan Province who has never suffered a loss. This time, you have suffered such a big loss. If you don't ask for anything unhappy, I feel uneasy."

Everyone laughed together, half because of Gaozuxing's humor, half because of Gaozuxing's position. The leader told a joke. Even if the joke is cold, you have to laugh with it.

Lin Zhenhua also laughed. He touched his head and said, "I didn't expect that my image in the eyes of the department leaders is so bad. It's really time to review it."

"Okay, stop talking nonsense, tell your request." Hua Keqin encouraged.

Lin Zhenhua said: "My unhappy request is actually just a matter of one sentence for Minister Gao. I want to ask the Ministry of Foreign Trade to give us a special policy for Hanhua Company. The patent fee of 4 US dollars will not be settled for foreign exchange, but will be left directly to us in the form of foreign exchange."

As soon as this sentence came out, everyone below became turbulent. The requirement for foreign exchange retention was too big. Everyone is engaged in foreign trade and knows how precious foreign exchange retention is. Nowadays, if you have foreign exchange that you can control freely, that is too awesome.

Not to mention, when a cadre went abroad, he only had a dozen dollars in pocket money a day, so everyone had to save money to stay and buy a large appliance. If your company has foreign exchange, which leader in the province, region, or county is on a business trip, you exchange some foreign exchange for him. It is not considered a bribe, but also a great help to others. At that time, who will not be polite when you see you?

Everyone has made requests for foreign exchange retention countless times, but few can be approved. Even if these can be approved, the amount of retention is very limited, and a few hundred dollars is very good. However, Manager Kobayashi, who has not even grown hair on his mouth, actually wanted to leave all the 4 dollars as soon as he opened his mouth.

It doesn’t seem to be much for $4, but everyone can calculate that at this year’s Canton Fair, the transaction volume of the Five-Leaf Fan is estimated to be more than 2 million units. The patent fee of $4 per unit is 8 million. What do you want to do, Manager Kobayashi, holding $8 million in foreign exchange in your hand?

Sure enough, Gaozu Xing was also stunned: "Xiaolin, your appetite is too big, right? You just need millions of foreign exchange to retain. As far as I know, no company in China can retain so much foreign exchange, right?"

Lin Zhenhua said: "It is precisely because there is no such thing as this.

He Haifeng smoothed out and said, "Xiaolin, tell me your reasons. As a domestic company, your raw materials are purchased in China. What do you need for foreign exchange? As far as I know, you imported a lot of foreign equipment last year. In terms of foreign exchange use, the Jiangnan Provincial Foreign Trade Department also takes great care of you and has not caused you any trouble."

Lin Zhenhua said: "I want to explain this matter. We want to keep this foreign exchange not for our own use, but for serving society."

"How to serve the society, tell me. If what you say makes sense, the ministry can consider your requirements." Gaozu Xing said.

Lin Zhenhua said: "We leave this money behind and want to use it to establish a patent foundation. Dear leaders don't know that we spent 7,000 or 8,000 US dollars to apply for the patent for the Five Leaf Fan. We will continue to pay patent maintenance fees every year in the future. This is just a patent fee. If more patents are involved, the fees will be even more considerable. These early fees are sponsored by lawyer Qian Yuanping, a Hong Kong patent agent. I still owe him favors to this day."

Lin Zhenhua was ignorant and evaded the foreign exchange source he applied for in patents first. Otherwise, everyone would wake up and find out what money he used to apply for the patent. He also had a problem. Regarding the issue of foreign exchange source, he had already discussed with Qian Yuanping the day before. Qian Yuanping expressed his willingness to take the blame for him. The blame was on Lin Zhenhua's, and when it was on Qian Yuanping's head, it was red, and it could be considered a patriotic Hong Kong businessman.

"How can your company let others provide private money to sponsor?" said Gao Zuxing.

Lin Zhenhua said: "I want to give him money, but I don't have foreign exchange? Last year we signed a contract of more than 40 million US dollars, but I didn't keep a penny, so how can I get the money?"

Gaozu Xing said: "You said this, I understand a little bit. What you mean is that if you want to apply for a patent, uh, and maintain a patent, you need to use foreign exchange, so you hope to leave some foreign exchange to do this, right?"

“That’s exactly that.”

"But, this doesn't cost so much, right?" Gaozu said happily. "You ask for $4 to stay, but it will cost millions of dollars. How many patents are you going to apply for?"

Lin Zhenhua said: "We are currently developing some new products. Once these new products are developed, we will immediately apply for international patents. At that time, it may involve the application and maintenance of dozens or even hundreds of patents, which will probably cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition, I have another idea, and I will say it here, please correct me by all leaders."

"What's the idea?"

"I said earlier that a patent foundation will be established. This foundation will be open to enterprises and individuals across the country to provide funding for their patent application."

"You mean, are you planning to use this money to fund other companies to apply for international patents?" He Haifeng asked keenly.

He didn't quite understand Lin Zhenhua's thoughts, and didn't know what Lin Zhenhua's statement was for. After many contacts with Lin Zhenhua, He Haifeng already knew that Lin Zhenhua was a person with a broad mind and had a strong sense of responsibility for the country and the nation. From this point of view, it is understandable that Lin Zhenhua took out his own money to apply for patents for other domestic companies.

However, He Haifeng also knew that Lin Zhenhua was not a person who abused love, otherwise he would not have used patent weapons to fight against infringing manufacturers. Patent application is something that all companies should do, and all companies are not without money to do it. Let Lin Zhenhua pay his own money to do things for other capable companies. This is not Lin Zhenhua's style.

Hearing He Haifeng's question, Lin Zhenhua laughed and said, "You can say this or you can change the word."

"Then tell me," He Haifeng said.

Lin Zhenhua said: "First of all, I want to explain the reason why I established this foundation. I have observed that many domestic companies do not cherish their own unique technology, while some illegal foreign manufacturers have already set their sights on our domestic technology and are stealing our patented technology with various despicable means and registering it in their own name. Once they succeed, our own technology will have to pay others. This problem is extraordinary."

"Is there such a thing?" Gaozu Xing asked in surprise.

Hua Keqin interrupted: "I just heard lawyer Qian from Hong Kong talk about this two days ago, and I was also shocked at that time."

Lin Zhenhua said: "Lawyer Qian is not sensational. Let me give you an example. The rice paper in Anhui is the traditional craft of our country and is famous all over the world. However, we have not yet applied for patents for the rice paper production technology. Think about it, if other countries, such as Japan, have learned about the rice paper production technology and applied for patents first, what should we do?"

"Is this impossible?" said a representative from Anhui Province. "This is an obvious matter. Who doesn't know that rice paper is our country's technology? Can Japanese people apply if they want to?"

He Haifeng nodded seriously and said, "Xiaolin is right. International patent applications, no matter whether you are obvious or not, they just do things according to procedures. Although they do not determine the ownership of the patent in a rigid manner according to the order of sequence, if we do not have stronger evidence, others can indeed take away the patent. Japanese culture is greatly influenced by Chinese culture. If they find some historical evidence to prove that they have long owned the production technology of rice paper and filed a patent application before us, it is hard to say who the patent belongs to in the end."

The Anhui representative said disapprovingly: "Director He, don't worry about this. The production of rice paper has always been very confidential, Japanese people..."

Speaking of this, he suddenly became hoarse, and a look of panic flashed in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Gaozu Xing asked.

"I...I..." Anhui representative stammered, "I remembered that just two months ago, a cultural delegation came to Japan and asked to visit our rice paper production process."

"Did you let them see it?" Gaozu Xing asked anxiously.

"We didn't think so much!" Anhui representative said aggrievedly, "They were brought by comrades from the Ministry of Culture. This is something that involves cultural exchanges between China and Japan. Of course, we cannot refuse. We sent someone to take them to see the entire production process. They were very interested and even held video recorders..."

"Oh!" Gaozu sighed, "What do you think you are doing!"

He Haifeng said calmly: "It's not their fault. When we were investigating at the National Patent Office, the comrades from the Patent Office also reminded us of this. But what they said is not as direct as Comrade Kobayashi said. I think the matter of rice paper may really need to bring our attention. Minister Gao, after you go back, should you ask the Ministry for instructions and immediately start the patent application for rice paper production process? You must be ahead of Japan."

Gaozu Xing nodded repeatedly: "Director He is right. This matter is very anxious. Whether Japan really wants to steal our patents, we will first be villains and then gentlemen. We will make the matter a little serious and we will never be wrong."

"It's not just rice paper, but also many other traditional crafts, such as cloisonne, Tang Sancai, Hui ink..." Lin Zhenhua counted one by one with his fingers. Every time he counted one, there were representatives of one or several provinces below and turned gray. When he counted almost the same, people at the table didn't say anything. Everyone thought that there were several important products in his province facing the problems of leaks and patent loss.

"In this regard, our Xiangping Province is still doing very well." A director of the Xiangping Provincial Department of Foreign Trade said, "We have a traditional blue porcelain, which is a secret process that has been passed down for hundreds of years. The Japanese said that many times we wanted to visit our production process, but we rejected it. This was decided by Director He when he was in our Provincial Department of Light Industry."

As he said that, he nodded to He Haifeng and complimented: "Now it seems that Director He was very foreseeable back then."

He Haifeng asked: "Director Li, why? Did you find our celadon factory recently?"

Director Li replied: "Yes, they came a few more times and wanted to see our stove, but they were rejected by the comrades from the porcelain factory. In the end, the Japanese had no choice but to ask them to bring some ash from the chimney back, saying that they would put it on the table as a souvenir. Everyone said it was ridiculous."

Lin Zhenhua looked at Director Li and asked, "Director Li, are they going to be ashes?"

Director Li replied: "Of course we won't refuse this request. They were quite serious and made a pretty bottle and put it in a small bottle. I think they really like our porcelain. They love the house and the black ones, even the dark gray."

Lin Zhenhua sighed softly, and then said leisurely: "Director Li, you don't need to give me a bottle of furnace ash. Just give me a dust that is no more than 50 microns. I will put this dust under an electron microscope and peel it off layer by layer with a probe. Just like looking at the annual rings on a tree trunk, analyzing the combustion of each layer, thereby completely reducing the sintering process in your kiln. Also, by spectral analysis of this dust, I can basically analyze what trace elements are contained in your porcelain clay, and even estimate the proportion of various trace elements."

"What you said is true?" Director Li's face began to turn gray, and he felt a little kiln-like.

He Haifeng interrupted: "I am not a ceramic student, but, in principle, I think what Kobayashi said is not outrageous. It is feasible to restore the entire sintering process from a piece of dust. As for whether Japan's technological level can be achieved, it is hard to say."

"Then...then..." Director Li stuttered, "Manager Lin, what do you mean is that our celadon craftsmanship may have been stolen by the Japanese?"

"It's entirely possible." Lin Zhenhua said, "microtechnology is not a difficult technology. I think the Japanese should have mastered it. They want the ash in your kiln, which is definitely not out of any interest, but is completely an act of industrial spy."

"No, I must notify the province immediately." Director Li said excitedly, "I want them to apply for patent protection immediately. This is an important export product in our province. If the Japanese master this technology, let alone grab the patent, we will be miserable just by replacing our exports to Japan."
Chapter completed!