Chapter 14 - <Immortals Online> Patent System

Alexander Smith

With Henry's assistance, not only has Alex successfully created his first magic lathe machine prototype, he has also created a magical milling machine and magical stamping press after one and a half month of trial and error. The first generation of these machines' design are rudimentary and works simply by combining a number of existing runic script to emulate the function of such machines in the real world. Though the machineries have been invented, it saw limited application at the beginning due to the issue of energy supply.

In the cultivation world, cultivators rarely use magical equipment in the first and second major realm due to the strain on their spirit energy reserve. At the first major realm, a cultivator will be out of spirit energy within minutes if he dares to go into combat equipped with a single magic equipment and that is provided the magic equipment equipped is of the most inferior grade. Even for a second major realm cultivator, the cultivator will only last for an hour in battle equipped with a single inferior grade magical equipment. As such, magic equipment only truly sees mass adoption when a cultivator achieves the third major realm. One can argue that cultivators always have the option of replenishing their spirit energy reserve with spirit recovery pills and potions in the midst of battle, but this is akin to a battle of attrition burning one's wealth. Additionally, spirit recovery pills and potions are not miracle drugs that can be taken continuously without limit.

Without a viable external energy source, these magic machineries have lost its biggest appeal as it is mean to be the gateway towards mass production. Magic machineries would have lost its meaning if an operator needs to take a break after a few minutes or an hour operating said machine. Alex has explored the feasibility of using spirit stone as an external energy source but the assessment has been less than ideal. Spirit stone is the main currency used in the cultivation world. The goal behind mass production is to achieve cost efficiency but the use of spirit stones to power magic machineries will only inflate production cost instead. Spirit stones are mostly used as an emergency energy source in the cultivation world and the only active use of it as an energy source are in weapons of war. War is ultimately an expensive undertaking.

The issue of energy supply was finally resolved when his close friend, Daniel Watson invented the first spirit energy battery. He is also the person Alex gave his last close beta player slot to. Battery is a foreign concept in the cultivation world primarily due to two main reasons. The first main reason is the existence of spirit stone. As a source of energy, spirit stones are superior to fossil fuel as its consumption doesn't generate any form of pollution. Adding on to the abundance of spirit stone veins found across the cultivation world, cultivators have never considered the need to find an alternative solution to their dependence on spirit stones. As the saying goes, don't go around fixing things that aren't broken.

As for the second reason, any new advancement and invention is a double edge sword for cultivators. The cultivation world follows the rule of the jungle where might makes right. Treasure in the possession of the weak is a curse and not a blessing. Using a child in the possession of a gold coin as an analogy, what's the chances of him being rob if everyone knew he is an orphan lacking the protection of an adult? Taking a step back, even if most adults are noble and decent enough not to rob the child of his wealth, it only takes one unscrupulous adult to harm the child. In such case, the child can count himself lucky if he just lost the gold coin. The worse case scenario is losing both his life and the gold coin. Though the mainstream of the cultivation world are the orthodox sects and empires, it still can't escape the inevitable existence of deviant sects and evil cultivators. There are far too many stories of a small clans or sects that have perish overnight just because they came into possession of a treasure. Therefore, only peak powers in the immortal realm dares to engage in research and development of new inventions without needing to worry about repercussion. For any other cultivators who somehow manage to invent something new, they will have to first assess whether they have the ability to protect themselves. Without the means, their only recourse is to sell the invention or kept the invention buried without it ever seeing the light of day. A single misstep in their assessment will not only cause their own demise but also the demise of everyone they care about. Given such an environment, whom among the cultivators will undertake such a thankless and potentially lethal task? This has resulted in a cultivation world that progress at a snail like pace when it comes to new invention and advancement despite the passing of millennia.

The invention of spirit energy battery not only helps to solve Alex's energy supply issue, it also gave him a deeper understanding on the workings of the patent system in . When he first created the magical lathe machine, the sect only rewarded him with some sect merits for making the attempt to blend Earth technologies with the cultivation world runic scripts. To point Alex in the right direction, the NPC has informed him that he would have to at least invent a machinery that has the capability equivalent to a numerical controlled machinery using runic script. It will be even better if he managed to invent the equivalent of a computer numerical controlled machinery. The patent system in follows a set of doctrines that are vastly different from Earth. For one, a standard patent on Earth has a twenty years protection period but a patent in can last indefinitely until the invention itself is made obsolete. For the indefinite protection, the patent owner does not get exclusive usage rights or monopoly in selling it. Anyone interested in the invention just need to apply for the right of usage and pay a royalty fee the sect deems appropriate. At the same time, anyone can work on improving the patent and as long as the improvement has been recognized by the sect, the person who made the improvement will get a cut of the royalty fee depending on the extent of the improvement made. Take the spirit energy battery as an example, the patent is fully owned by Daniel at this point in time. In the event that Alex successfully made a thirty percent improvement to the battery design and it gets the sect recognition, he will get a thirty percent cut from all future royalty fees. The patent system in is structured as such to ensure all patent owners can't just sit on their laurel and make gradual improvement to their invention at their own sweet time. Off course, the patent system is not without its flaws but it was designed to ensure that no party can single-handedly delay the pace of improvement simply for the sake of profit maximization or engaging in price gouging and indulge in production inefficiency due to their monopoly.

Looking back when the spirit energy battery was first invented, it was the size of twenty-foot freight container and at full energy capacity only carries enough energy to power a single magic machinery for eight hours. The battery design has undergone multiple design iterations since then backed by Daniel's wealth on Earth. Alex has guessed correctly that Daniel will quickly discern potential and within days, he has secured the support of his family significantly increasing the resources at his disposal. The money Daniel has poured into commissioning other players to help with his runic script research and creating the battery prototypes alone amounted to a few hundred thousand dollars so far. Alex and Joshua have also inadvertently benefited from Daniel's extravagance earning themselves more than twenty thousand dollars creating some of the battery prototype components. Moreover, Daniel's spending on extent even to the real world. To accelerate his runic script research, he has turned to applying Artificial Intelligence to run thousands of simulations to continuously come up with viable route of improvements. It is regrettable that Alex can't copy Daniel's approach to accelerate his own magic machineries research. Setting up the mainframe servers alone probably cost a fortune. As of a few Earth days ago, the latest spirit energy battery is now half its original size while having ten times more energy capacity. The cost of producing a single battery has also been reduced by a third.