Rebirth 1973 - Chapter 38 Paten

Since the day Henry gave the blueprint to the technician, all of the technician has preliminary understand of Apple-1. Steve Wozniak and the team has begun to assemble it as the deadline set by their boss is just 2 month.

If they can’t even assemble Apple-1 according to the blueprint, they would be too ashamed to show their face. So after 4 days comprehending the blueprint, Steve Wozniak immediately assemble Apple-1.

After Henry saw Apple has officially started, he left it alone as they did not him for now. Henry believes with the blueprint he gives to them, Apple-1 can be built 2 months at the latest. So now must register the patent for Apple-1 and its subsequent version.

Henry headed into San Jose patent office as it the nearest to him. San Jose patent office is one of the biggest patent offices as it near the famous Silicon Valley. Every day, many people register at least one patent so it’s nothing new.

So Henry patents for Apple-1 quickly accepted by them and recorded into the United States database. The patent includes many designs and part of Apple-1. The patent only valid in the United States, it would be invalid if it outside the United States.

Henry must register the patent as actually Apple-1 technology is nothing advanced. The one that makes Apple-1 stand out is the creative idea of it. So if later Henry releases Apple-1, many people can quickly imitate it as imitating is easier than inventing.

So before people realize the potential of Apple-1, Henry quickly registered the patent for it. Apple-1 is the first personal computer(PC) that appear on the market. The term personal computer first appeared because of MITS Altair 8800.

After MITS Altair 8800 appear on the market, its sales quickly rise up due to its cheap price compared to the computer before it. The computer that appears before Altair 8800 is very expensive like the one IBM has, each at least cost $10,000.

So before Altair 8800 appears, the computer is only the plaything for the rich as they too expensive for it popular to the public. So when Altair 8800 appear with only $397 as its price, the market response was very incredible.

The low price was the actual sensation, because it was largely known that the price for the Intel 8080 CPU powering the Altair was already at $360. So many hobbyists, engineers, and programmers who had keenly waited for their own personal computer, which they could experiment on at home, welcomed the new product and ordered “their” Altair on the spot.

This is where the term ‘personal computer’ appear. Ed Robert as the founder of MITS saw the potential of Intel 8080, so this is where he gets the idea for his Altair 8800.

Roberts had never expected such a great response and his small firm was flooded by those immediate orders (more than 4000). He boosted up the production but still could not meet the huge demand. The Altair was a success at first, and Roberts sold many of them.

However, he had increased production at the expense of quality and further refinement of his computer, so the Altair brought along a lot of trouble and was finally supplanted by other computers which were superior.

Nevertheless, the Altair as the first successful microcomputer, contributed a lot to the PC revolution, since it encouraged other people to build personal computers (e.g. IMSAI, Apple).

But the truly popular one and useful is Apple-1. Compared to Altair 8800 that don’t have monitor, keyboard and can only use a switch to operate, Apple-1 function bursting Altair 8800 by a large margin.

Apple-1 is called revolution by many experts due to its low price of just $666.66 and the function of it. Apple-1 is the one that makes Apple success, so its importance can be imagined.

So Henry wants to protect Apple-1 before it can be imitated by people. But Henry still feel that the United States patent is not enough, for the assurance of it, he decided to register the International one too.

Fortunately, the San Jose patent office can contact its parent organization, USPTO. So at the same time, Henry applied patent for the US, the International is registered too.

Henry registered 218 patent related to Apple-1, each patent cost $1,000 each and Henry must pay $200 each year for it. Henry pays only 5-year patent protection as 5 years later, Apple-1 would be junk.

The cost for patent nothing much compared to what will he gain later, so he happily pays for it. Henry did not fear someone would try to copy Apple-1 design now as it already patented.

So even if they can somehow get the design from the patent office, they would get nothing as it was only the design. For the core of it, Henry did not patent them as it not necessary. The electronic part of Apple-1 can be imitated even with a patent as it nothing difficult.

So even if Henry gets a patent for it, it would only a futile attempt. They can just change its design by a little and they can pass the patent protection. And if Henry patented it, it would only make his competitor get his technology.

A patent can be seen as long you pay a price, so why Henry patented it? It would be better to not apply a patent for it so his competitor slowed down their research to imitate the Apple-1 later. By the time they successfully research the imitation, Apple-1 already dominated the market.

Even Apple-1 is nothing much if it can be imitated quickly as Henry has a backup plan. So if somehow they can imitate Apple-1, they destined to their disappointment.

While now he still at the patent office, Henry registered Atari Home Pong too. Home Pong would be his money tree later as its ability to absorb gold is very terrifying. Especially Home PONG is very easy to imitate because of its low technical content.

So to prevent it to be imitated, Henry registered 70 patent related to Home Pong. It only cost S200 each due it is nothing complex. Henry needs to pay $200 each year for it maintained, and this time Henry pay for 10 years as Home Pong would still popular at least for 8 years.