Chapter 453: This Is the First Time I Have Seen Someone Do This in All My Years in the Industry!

Li Xiaofan's words were like dropping a small bomb in Xu Jianguo's heart.

Because every word Li Xiaofan said seemed to speak to his heart!

For example, "forming an alliance to fight against Cadence" does not mean that Xu Jianguo is so focused on the emerging market in mainland China. At present, the main markets for EDA are still in developed countries in Europe and the United States.

But currently Avant! Pioneer Company is in a dangerous situation under the leadership of Xu Jianguo!

Just last November, the new Avant! Pioneer Company had just announced its renamed establishment, and it was a joyous moment.

Before the full moon was over, in early December, Julius Finkelstein, the deputy prosecutor of Santa Clara County in Silicon Valley and a computer science graduate from Stanford University, brought people to the door and conducted a thorough search of the Avant! company.

Because some time ago, Costello, the boss of Cadence Company, accidentally seized some irrefutable evidence and worked hard to compile a case to urge the local prosecutor to take action.

And this unexpected and irrefutable evidence was completely accidental.

One summer ago, Jeff, a small programmer at Cadence, went out to visit a customer as a routine, but saw an astonishing scene on the other party's computer: there was a tiny misaligned graphic in the upper right corner of the screen.

This was a small, innocuous mistake that Jeff made unintentionally when he and his colleagues were writing Cadence's EDA software Cell3 a few years ago. Because it was time-consuming to rewrite the program from scratch, and this small error did not affect any functionality of the software, they simply "ignored" it at the time.

But what is currently displayed on the customer's computer is the latest version of the EDA software "ArcCell XO" that is being tested by the competitor Avant! Pioneer Company.

Avant! The guys at Pioneer Company "copied homework" to such an outrageous level, which surprised Jeff!

But the irrefutable evidence of "copying homework" discovered by Jeff made Costello, the boss of Cadence Company, feel like a treasure!

Later, in 2001, the Silicon Valley District Court ordered Avant! Pioneer to compensate Cadence for US$195 million. This ironclad evidence played an important role. Jeff received 1% of the reward, which was US$1.95 million. An unintentional bug turned a small programmer into a millionaire and a winner in life.

Later, the news spread, and for a period of time, a new trend emerged among programmers in Silicon Valley: deliberately leaving a small clerical error when writing a program, using clever tricks and tricks. It's a pity that no other programmer made a fortune from writing errors like Jeff...

Shortly after the verdict, there was a report: Chinese friends in Silicon Valley invited several senior executives of Avant! Pioneer Company to have a meal to calm down their shock. While they were drinking heavily, these senior executives felt that they were also aggrieved:

"Actually, we were also developing a completely independent EDA system at that time, and our wiring algorithm was much better than Cadence's. However, we had not done a good job in data management at that time, so we rushed to use Cadence's code for testing first. Come on!"

Friends asked: "But you not only tested, but also sold the products under test to customers!"

The executive said: "Our company was listed at that time. Lao Xu was anxious to achieve results and sell to customers. The purpose was to get money first, and then he could continue to develop after getting money. How could you develop without money? There was only a little time at that time. , we can replace those copied codes. It’s a pity that we failed in the end! Vice President Miao, don’t you think so?”

Vice President Miao next to him put down his chopsticks and said sternly, "The letter i is so damn good, Mr. Xu has to turn it upside down!"

…

After a humiliating raid by the Silicon Valley District Attorney, the current Avant! pioneer company has adopted "clean room" methods to rewrite its Arccell source program to ensure its legality. The new product is called Milkyway-Apollo Galaxy Awa Luo.

However, this ironclad stain obviously cannot be erased!

Fortunately, after Avant! Pioneer went public, Xu Jianguo could afford a team of lawyers. Lawyers with expensive legal fees don't care about your professional ethics or whether you are right or wrong. They only strive to maximize the interests of their clients.

After discussing with the legal team, Xu Jianguo realized that it seemed impossible to win this case. The only strategy was to delay and argue, without saying whether he had done anything or not, and only saying that the other party's evidence was insufficient.

In order to delay and argue as much as possible, Xu Jianguo also thought of a strange trick: to counter the accusation, we will also sue Cadence!

What did the lawyer ask for? Xu Jianguo said that they sued Cadence for unfair competition, and then said that Cadence bribed customers when they asked them to abandon ArcSys software, and that Cadence illegally stole the immigration information of ArcSys employees...

Then Xu Jianguo produced detailed records and evidence.

The lawyer was shocked: Let me go, Mr. Xu, how did you know about such a top-secret matter of Cadence Company, and even have such detailed records? Is this another Watergate incident?

Xu Jianguo laughed: These were all done by my brothers and I at Cadence! Because I was the vice president and head of the chip design department at Cadence at that time. When the time comes, I can be a "tainted witness" in court and admit that what I did was done at the behest of Costello, the boss of Cadence...

The lawyer was dumbfounded: Damn, I have been in the industry for so many years, and this is the first time I have seen such a thing: doing it yourself and then suing yourself!

Old Xu laughed: "There is no constant situation in the army, and there is no constant shape in the water. You foreigners don't understand the wisdom of Sun Tzu's Art of War!"

The lawyer's heart: These Taiwanese people have no bottom line...

It is said that when Xu Jianguo counter-sued Cadence for unfair competition in court, Costello, the boss of Cadence, was dumbfounded. Later, at the end of the following year, in 1997, while still in the lawsuit with Avant!, Costello, who was in his prime, left Cadence, which he founded himself.

He said that this lawsuit made him sick, he never wanted to hear Xu Jianguo's name again, and he didn't want to step into this industry again...

Although, the lawsuit has been temporarily delayed through the counterclaim in court.

But Lao Xu knew in his heart that this was only a temporary blockage and delay.

After all, he and Avant! were the ones who were at fault, and his counterclaim in court angered Cadence and Costello even more. They would definitely not let him and Avant! go!

So, in addition to hiring a luxury team of lawyers, Lao Xu did a lot of public welfare and hired a professional image consultant to build a positive image for the company. Contrary to the habits of Silicon Valley software companies, he pushed the company's technical team to the media and promoted it in a high-profile manner, showing that the company's programmers really knew how to write code and they were fully capable of independently developing EDA programs...

But their superficial "toughness" could not cover up their inner "weakness".

Therefore, when Li Xiaofan said "form an alliance to fight against Cadence", "set up an anti-C office", "establish a positive and glorious image of you and Avant! Pioneer", every sentence touched Old Xu at that moment.

In fact, ever since Santa Clara County Deputy Attorney Julius Finkelstein brought people to search his Avant! Pioneer, on the surface he did not admit defeat and led the team to continue to fight hard with Cadence, but he had already begun to consider his own way out.

And Li Xiaofan's heart:

Avant! Pioneer can copy Cadence's homework, so we will also strive to copy Cadence's homework openly within five years before the court's ruling in 2001!