Becoming Rich with Daily Scavenging APP-Chapter 561: Patent Expiring Soon

After being taught a lesson multiple times by the Chinese and American business circles, the Japanese now think, I won’t even bother building the road; I just heard there might be a road here in the future.

So, I’ll just go ahead and set up a toll booth and start collecting fees in advance.

That way, you won’t be able to build a new road somewhere else to avoid my charges.

The Japanese are applying this new logic in the refrigeration industry.

The industrial refrigeration industry used to rely on liquid nitrogen for cooling. It’s cheap and effective, but it’s very unsafe.

Flammable, explosive, volatile, and toxic.

Later, refrigeration companies worldwide collectively started researching to find something to replace liquid nitrogen.

Eventually, two potential solutions were discovered.

One is carbon dioxide. The good thing is it’s safe; in case of a leak, you have a five-minute rescue window, and the rescue process is straightforward, effectively reducing the chance of accidents.

But although carbon dioxide is safe, the equipment for developing carbon dioxide refrigerants requires very high pressure, making it unaffordable for the average factory.

The other solution is alkane refrigerants.

These refrigerants are even more flammable and explosive than liquid nitrogen, but they are easy to prepare, require low equipment performance, and have high heat transfer efficiency.

While there’s a slight safety issue, as long as production is regulated and flame retardants are used, there shouldn’t be any problems.

Of course, the most important thing is that they are cheap.

This one advantage alone can overshadow the other drawbacks.

And then.

The disgusting thing happened.

Just as global refrigeration companies were painstakingly experimenting with which alkane refrigerant was more effective.

The Japanese, somehow inspired, suddenly thought.

Instead of spending a lot on researching which alkane refrigerant is most useful, why not just register the key equipment patents for producing alkane refrigerants directly?

So, the Japanese took advantage before anyone else realized and preemptively registered the key component patents for mainstream alkane refrigerant production equipment.

In fact, at this stage, everything was still negotiable.

You’re smart, clever, know how to think outside the box.

Everyone acknowledges that.

You name a price, give a permanent license, earn a sum of money, and then everyone stays focused on researching alkane refrigerants.

But when major refrigeration companies approached the Japanese, they discovered that they had no intention of discussing patent licenses.

That’s right, the Japanese had the patents but had no intention of licensing them out.

Because licensing now would only earn them a sum of money.

But once the companies figure out alkane refrigerants, the Japanese could use these patents to charge the companies heavily, essentially having everyone work for them.

This is the Japanese’s brilliant idea for earning money effortlessly.

I don’t build the road; you build it.

All I have to do is set up a toll booth at a crucial junction, anyway you can’t bypass me.

Once you’re done building, I’ll just start charging. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The Japanese’s approach completely angered all refrigeration companies.

Big companies had the money, could afford R&D losses, so they continued with small-scale investments to explore alkane refrigerants.

Small companies directly abandoned research and changed fields.

From then on, at any world refrigeration exposition, companies from Huaxia and South Korea would emphasize they weren’t Japanese, to avoid getting the cold shoulder.

As for the Japanese at the refrigeration fairs, they were utterly despised.

Because previously, in fields like plasma and hydrogen energy, the Japanese’s preemptive patent registration could be bypassed by others.

But in this case, in the refrigeration sector, companies couldn’t bypass even a little bit of the Japanese patents.

So to prevent future exploitation by the Japanese, everyone collectively abandoned progress and waited for the Japanese patents to expire.

"So, the Japanese patents on alkane refrigerant equipment are about to expire?" Chen Yiyang asked.

"Yes, in the next few years," Boss Yu said, "Once the Japanese patents expire, the major companies in the refrigeration field can continue advancing.

Whoever finds the most suitable alkane refrigerant first will make a hefty profit."

After hearing Boss Yu explain the whole story, Chen Yiyang finally understood why the investment tip suggested there were opportunities to exploit in this field.

As long as the Japanese don’t develop alkane refrigerants first, no matter which company from other countries does, everyone can chip in a little for patent fees and make money together.

This Japanese way of thinking is something I really can’t understand.

After talking with Boss Yu, Chen Yiyang immediately agreed to invest in Boss Yu’s company.

So Boss Yu could have the funds to begin researching alkane refrigerants.

If they manage to develop the refrigerants before the Japanese patents expire, they can start mass production and sales domestically as soon as the patents do expire.

After chatting with Boss Yu, Chen Yiyang thought he could spend a few quiet days in Lin’an.

But surprisingly, someone online named him again.

Upon checking, Chen Yiyang realized it was the CEO of Lixiang.

Previously, Lixiang was ridiculed online for their marketing where a car was shown knocking a truck over.

Due to the high interest, another issue emerged.

People believed that Lixiang drivers generally lacked courtesy. Many netizens even found photos of Lixiang cars parked carelessly in parking spots or beside roads as evidence.

This mattered little to Chen Yiyang; he just sparked it and didn’t follow up.

Besides, the reason he commented under the Lixiang promotional video was that Lixiang first attacked his Yiyang Automobile, so he retaliated.

In the end, after Lixiang found someone to connect with Chenlong Truck and issued a joint statement.

The Lixiang CEO brought up the issue of their drivers being criticized online once again.

And remarked, "Do you know which company slandered Lixiang, and who provoked the public opinion?"

Below the CEO’s comment, a new account commented: Is it that Chen Boss?

The CEO of Lixiang pinned this comment and replied: Afraid to say.

So, Chen Yiyang was also pushed to the trending searches.

This is just [censored].

Am I framing you now?

Chen Yiyang’s team was already experienced in handling such public opinions.

Casually browsing online, they found a photo of the Lixiang CEO with his wife, driving a Lixiang car.

What was hard to ignore was that in the photo, the Lixiang CEO was walking toward his car.

And his car was parked haphazardly at the roadside.

So no one really framed you.

Chen Yiyang immediately forwarded this photo and added a comment: Found the one bashing Lixiang.