Patent Agent No. 139

  Two years later, Lin Zhenhua arrived in Guangzhou again. Outside the Guangzhou train station, holding a sign to pick him up was still the girl named Shu Man from two years ago. She wore a beige windbreaker and stood out among a group of people wearing black or blue clothes.

  "Manager Lin, the car is in the outdoor parking lot. Let me help you with your luggage," Shu Man said enthusiastically.

  Lin Zhenhua didn't let her take the luggage, but politely said: "Miss Shu, thank you for your help this time."

  Schumann said: "Nothing, being able to help Manager Lin with something, I am very honored."

  Lin Zhenhua looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to them, so he reached into his bag and pulled out an envelope, handing it to Shu Man: "Miss Shu, this is your labor fee, a total of 100 yuan, please count it."

  Schumann didn't decline, she took the envelope and covered it with her windbreaker, pulled out half of the money, quickly counted it, then smiled sweetly at Lin Zhenhua and said: "Just right, thank you Manager Lin. Actually, I just helped to pull a string, really don't dare to accept so much labor cost."

  Lin Zhenhua said: "The role played by Miss Shu is irreplaceable by others, so this little money is laughable to Miss Shu."

  Schumann put away the money and said to Lin Zhenhua, "Let's go, let's get on the bus. Lawyer Qian Yuanping is probably still handling entry procedures in Shenzhen now, and it's estimated that he won't arrive until this afternoon. Let's go find a place to eat something first."

  Lin Zhenhua said: "No problem, Miss Shu can arrange it. I'll trouble Miss Shu to take care of everything for me in Guangzhou."

  Lin Zhenhua kept addressing her as Miss Shu, but Shu Man didn't feel any discomfort at all. At that time in mainland China, the term "Miss" was still quite rare, and ordinary girls might have felt offended if they were addressed with this title. However, Shu Man worked on foreign affairs and had received many overseas guests over the past two years, and she herself had been to Hong Kong twice on official business, so she was already very used to being called "Miss".

  Lin Zhenhua asked Schumann for help in hiring a lawyer, which was also an impulsive decision.

  Lin Zhenhua had thought long ago that if his products were to enter the international market, patent application was a necessary step that could not be bypassed, otherwise the five-leaf fan designed by Liu Xianghai would become someone else's product.

  But at that time in mainland China, it was not easy to apply for a patent overseas. Lin Zhenhua had the intention of going to Hong Kong personally to handle the patent application, but after inquiring about the details, he found out that as an ordinary cadre, he would need to get hundreds of red stamps, and if any department at or above the level of the stamp felt he was not qualified, all the previously stamped documents would be invalid.

  After much consideration, Lin Zhenhua had no choice but to settle for second best and asked someone to invite a lawyer from Hong Kong to Guangzhou to accept the commission. The only intermediary that Lin Zhenhua could think of was Shu Man, who was in Guangzhou. Two years ago, when Lin Zhenhua came to Guangzhou to receive the MK800 machine tool, he had dealt with Shu Man for a few days and knew that this girl was relatively open-minded, had more contact with foreigners, and could also keep her mouth shut, making her the best candidate as an intermediary.

  Lin Zhenhua wrote a letter to Schumann, asking if she knew any lawyers in Hong Kong who handled patent applications and whether she could invite one to come to Guangzhou. Schumann replied that she had the resources and was willing to help make contact. Lin Zhenhua immediately offered to pay Schumann 100 yuan as labor costs after the matter was settled, and in the future if there were other matters, he would continue to pay according to this standard. As a result, Schumann's enthusiasm increased greatly.

  Schuman is a fashionable woman, as a foreign affairs worker, she pursues the lifestyle of foreigners more than anyone else. She likes beautiful clothes, imported cosmetics and imported home appliances. But all these are not affordable with her salary. When doing foreign reception work, she sometimes receives some tips from clients, although according to regulations, these tips need to be handed over, but like other colleagues, she often hides some as her own extra income.

  The time she received a handsome reward from Ford for entertaining the Hanhua Factory delegation, which made her happy for a long time. This time, Lin Zhenhua asked for her help and she didn't expect to be paid labor costs by Lin Zhenhua, but Lin Zhenhua offered 100 yuan as payment, making Schumann realize that Lin Zhenhua was her lucky star, and following him would bring endless opportunities for extra income.

  Two people sat in the small sedan hired by Schumann and arrived at an ordinary restaurant. Schumann simply ordered two dishes and sat down to eat with Lin Zhenhua. Lin Zhenhua had previously agreed with her that all the expenses for hiring a car and eating would be borne by Lin Zhenhua.

  "Manager Lin, this Qian Yuanping lawyer, was originally from the mainland and escaped to Hong Kong. He is now doing patent agency work in Hong Kong and has a bit of a reputation. I've asked several different Hong Kong clients about him, and they all say that his credibility is good and his fees are reasonable." Shu Man said while eating, introducing Qian Yuanping to Lin Zhenhua.

  "Uh-huh, good." Lin Zhenhua nodded and said, "I found that you have a talent for being the manager of the office."

  "Really?" Schumann blinked her beautiful eyes, with a slightly provocative expression, and said to Lin Zhenhua: "Can I assume that Manager Lin wants to hire me as the manager of the Guangzhou office?"

  Lin Zhenhua smiled and said: "If Miss Shu is willing to give up her current job, I am very interested in hiring Miss Shu."

  Schumann smiled and said, "Not yet, if I quit now, my family will scold me to death. However, my work is not busy, if Manager Lin has anything that needs to be done here, just let me know."

  Lin Zhenhua said: "Okay, in the future I will definitely bother Miss Shu again. By the way, I asked you to help me inquire about the specific details of patent application, have you gained anything?"

  Schumann said: "I asked some Hong Kong businessmen and they told me a lot. I have sorted it out. Now let me introduce them to you one by one."

  Next, Schumann began to tell Lin Zhenhua about the patent application. Among them, some things were vaguely known to Lin Zhenhua, while others were completely unfamiliar to him. He could hear that Schumann was very careful in this matter and had a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the issues. Originally, he still had some worries about applying for patents, but after hearing these, he felt more at ease.

  After dinner, Schumann first took Lin Zhenhua to the hotel to check in, and then pulled him to the department store to buy a new set of clothes. According to Schumann's words, an old boss who talks about international patent applications should not dress as slovenly as Lin Zhenhua.

  Lin Zhenhua would not admit that he was sloppy, and when he was in Jiangnan Province, he thought he was still quite fashionable. However, after Shu Man took him shopping at the department store and forced him to buy a casual outfit to dress himself up, Lin Zhenhua had to admit that the eyesight of Guangzhou girls was indeed more stylish than that of Fenghua girls. The clothes Yang Xin chose for him were not as trendy as those chosen by Shu Man.

  "Otherwise, can you help me pick out a few more sets of clothes for girls?" Lin Zhenhua asked Shu Man.

  "Alright, did your wife pick it out for you?" Schumann asked.

  Lin Zhenhua said: "Not a wife yet, fiancée. Right, I also need to pick out a few sets for my sister."

  "Manager Lin is really a good man." Shu Man said with a sour tone.

  At three o'clock in the afternoon, two people arrived at the tea table in the lobby of Liu Hua Hotel. This was where Shu Man and Qian Yuanping had agreed to meet. As soon as they ordered their tea, a thin man wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase came running in from outside. He stood in the lobby looking around for a while before walking straight over to Lin Zhenhua's table.

  "Miss Shu, sorry about that, I took up too much time during the inspection." The man said to Shu Man while wiping the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief. Before Shu Man could respond, he turned to Lin Zhenhua and said: "You must be Manager Lin, I'm Qian Yuanping, nice to meet you."

  Schumann hastily stood up and invited Qian Yuanping to sit down. Lin Zhenhua stretched out his hand and shook hands with Qian Yuanping, introducing himself: "I am Lin Zhenhua, the manager of Jiangnan Province Hanhua Industrial Company. It's an honor to invite Lawyer Qian to help us with patent application matters."

  "This is to be expected," said Qian Yuanping, looking at Lin Zhenhua and then sighing: "Mr. Lin is indeed young and promising, becoming the manager of such a large company at such a young age, with boundless prospects."

  "It's just a coincidence." Lin Zhenhua said perfunctorily. He didn't let Schumann reveal the actual situation of Hanhua Company to Qian Yuanping, who imagined that a company capable of entrusting a Hong Kong lawyer with foreign patent applications must be quite large in scale, and might even have some hard background connections.

  "Manager Lin wants to entrust me with handling a product, what's the situation, can you introduce it?" After some small talk, Qian Yuanping got straight to the point. A lawyer's appearance fee is also calculated by the hour, he didn't have much time to chat idly.

  Lin Zhenhua said: "The product we applied for is a new type of electric fan. The main technical innovation lies in that it is a five-leaf fan, and the shape of the leaves was personally designed by top experts from our country, with features such as energy-saving, low noise, and soft feeling. According to our understanding, there has not been any similar product on the foreign market yet."

  Qian Yuanping shook his head and said, "Whether or not there are similar products, just looking at the market is not enough. This requires conducting a patent search. Sometimes, it's possible that someone has already applied for a patent for a product, but it hasn't been put on the market yet. In this case, your patent application would also be invalid."

  Lin Zhenhua smiled and said, "Don't worry, Lawyer Qian. We also have some common sense about these things. However, it's not very convenient for us to conduct patent searches on the mainland, so we'll need your help with this matter as well."

  Qian Yuanping said, "No problem, our agents are just doing this. You only need to entrust this matter to us and you don't have to worry about the rest. By the way, Manager Lin, I want to clarify that people in our line of work are not actually lawyers, but patent agents. What we do is not quite the same as what lawyers do. As for 'Qian Lawyer' and so on, it's just a habitual way of addressing us."

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