America 1982-Chapter 139 - 46: Pleasant Cooperation_3

"I don’t want to fall at the first hurdle, nor do I want to settle with the opposition. If I’m not mistaken, Ms. Case, the United States has a system of ’friends of the court,’ right? Friends of the court can voluntarily provide legal information or opinions to assist in litigation, helping judges and juries understand what the dispute is all about." Tommy looked up and said to Delia.

Delia frowned slightly, "Are you saying you’ve found some classmates from Stanford Law School to stand up for you in court? Listen, Tommy, in Massachusetts, using this tactic to try to influence the judgment will only anger the court and jury. I just said, it’s their territory, you need to bring enough influence."

"No, one hundred and seventy-six non-profit legal advocacy organizations, with a total membership exceeding thirty thousand, are willing to submit briefs as friends of the court for this lawsuit, to provide a comprehensive exposition of one hundred seventy-six arguments regarding the infringement in question, to intervene in the case judgment. Because they are non-profit organizations and also legal advocacy groups, their briefs will be taken more seriously by the courts. In other words, if the court makes a ruling that is contrary to all the friends of the court, these non-profit legal advocacy groups can directly question the clarity and motives of the judges and jurors’ decisions at a higher court." Tommy Hawk looked at Delia:

"Do you think the special attention of one hundred seventy-six non-profit organizations, with over thirty thousand members, is enough to withstand the blow from the state and circuit courts? If not, there are over a hundred prostitutes ready to fly in to hold a press conference outside the Massachusetts court, and further unutilized powers include the surviving twenty thousand members of the SSD Fraternity and reserve forces from Florida."

"One hundred seventy-six? Non-profit legal advocacy organizations?" Surprise flashed across Delia’s face as she couldn’t help but open a folder and glance again at the files of Actor Corporation, "And you’ve prepared detailed expository documents?"

An ordinary small company, founded by Stanford University students, passionate about public welfare, nothing more.

The appearance of friends of the court in a lawsuit is not strange, nor is it strange for wealthy companies to find hundreds of friends of the court to support them. But what Tommy Hawk is talking about, one hundred seventy-six friends of the court being non-profit legal advocacy organizations—meaning, one hundred seventy-six organizations registered for the purpose of advocating for various legislations or legal reforms. The most esteemed friends of the court are either public officials holding national institution positions or such non-profit legal advocacy organizations.

Most importantly, these organizations must have their own lawyers, meaning the organization must have steady donations to hire lawyers to handle the group’s legal affairs, and the brief submitted to court must certainly be drafted by the hired professional lawyers of the organization.

It couldn’t possibly be the makeshift setup of a few initiators.

"One hundred seventy-six university women’s rights organizations. If we exclude the Stanford University Women’s Equality Promotion Association for being too closely associated with the litigants, that leaves one hundred seventy-five." Tommy’s gaze was steady as he looked at Delia, "Do you think that’s enough to hold off..."

Delia interjected with certainty, cutting off Tommy’s words, "It’s enough. It will catch them off guard. By showing your cards, Lotus can only try to delay time and spend a great deal of effort thinking up ways to counter the influence of these friends of the court. But I am curious about another subject. From this, I realize you’re not the sort of person who would make the mistake of infringing upon someone’s rights, given that you’ve been able to rally such support for your small company to attack Lotus Corporation, an upstart in the software industry."

"That’s the other issue I want to discuss. Remember the special edition they have in their hands? While they’re caught off guard, trying to settle or delay, Actor will counter-sue for plagiarism. They will certainly continue their normal software updates, and no matter whether each new feature is plagiarized or not, believe me, there will certainly be features similar to OSS in their update plan, and I’m sure Lotus Corporation’s programmers must have seen my version of the software. As long as they’ve seen it, it’s an opportunity to sling mud. Of course, this will require Lawyer Kase to demonstrate your capability during the evidence collection phase to somehow obtain testimony from Lotus Corporation’s programmers or have them willing to become witnesses," Tommy said to Delia:

"My company hasn’t profited, and neither have I, so naturally, I wouldn’t make a mistake. Even if we lose the infringement case, non-profit status can be used to minimize trouble as much as possible: the worst that can happen is shutting down the company and handing over data. My good personal moral standing will ensure I won’t face jail time. But I’m not just any bug, I’m a firefly. I haven’t profited, and infringement could convince the jury to forgive me on moral grounds. But I intend to shine a light on the approaching Lotus Corporation, a commercial entity. For a business company, plagiarism, or even suspected plagiarism, is fatal in an environment filled with enemies and rivals."

Delia took a few seconds to digest the information, then slowed her speech, her eyes changing from indifferent to admiring, but she still voiced her opinion truthfully:

"If they realize your intentions and cancel the updates, your long-prepared all-out strike will be for naught; your countersuit will come up empty. You’re better off waiting until their official update release and then countering to claim damages."