Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

Chen Yiran had expected many replies, but she hadn't anticipated this many.

The next morning, when I turned on my computer, the web-scraper repository on GitHub was overflowing with questions and private messages, and there were also many on Hacker News.

Most people are just curious: why is the web crawler author suddenly hiring a lawyer? Were you sued by a big company?

Most of the encouragement was genuine; many people cheered him on, telling him not to give up and so on. Chen Yiran was completely bewildered. He was trying to register a patent, not being sued.

Of course, there were also quite a few onlookers, including various self-proclaimed professional lawyers who started asking him what his story was. Opening the files, he saw they were all veteran programmers, and Chen Yiran could only silently curse them to go bald.

Only a few people who have identified themselves can offer help, but Chen Yiran isn't really in the circle, so how would she know who's who?

I had to Google them one by one, and eventually I found that there were quite a few talented people on GitHub and Hacker News during this period.

Legendary engineer Bryan Cantrill, 37signals founder Jason Fried, and even icon Mitch Kapor.

After much deliberation, Chen Yiran identified three individuals as the most worthy of contact.

The first one is Bruce Perens.

He is the author of the open-source definition, one of the founders of Debian, and the kind of person in the Linux community whose call to action can be echoed by half the community.

The email was quite long. The gist was that he had seen Chen Yiran's information and felt it was yet another case of an independent developer being bullied by a large company. He had just finished helping someone fight a lawsuit against patent extortion in an open-source project; it had taken several years, and they finally won this February.

This is why Chen Yiran carefully considered his case. Previously, an open-source author of a model train project was being relentlessly blackmailed by a company using software patents. Feeling helpless, he turned to the open-source community for help. Bruce Perens stepped forward, providing not only legal support but also appearing in court as an expert witness. In February of this year, they won the case, forcing the blackmailer to pay compensation and signing a permanent injunction.

In the email, Bruce said that if Chen Yiran encountered a similar problem, he could help introduce her to a lawyer and even provide support as a community endorsement.

This person's influence is undoubtedly enormous; with his endorsement, one can move freely within the open-source community.

However, the problem is also obvious. Bruce Perens helped others based on the spirit of open source, and the previous case involved an open source project being blackmailed by a patent. If Bruce gets involved in his own affairs and then discovers that he registered the patent not to prevent blackmail, but to sell the editor to the highest bidder, that would be awkward.

He just wanted to choose a reliable law firm; there was absolutely no need for him to go through all this trouble. The backlash could be disastrous. The open-source community won't be criticizing Microsoft; they'll be criticizing Chen Yiran for freeloading community resources.

Therefore, this option is also not acceptable.

The second one came from Paul Graham, who also left an email address for ycombinator.

This person had liked Chen Yiran's account before. Chen Yiran hadn't recognized the person before, but after searching and asking Jasmine, she was basically certain that this was a big shot she knew from her past life.

It's probably a video made by a Bilibili (Bilibili is a Chinese video sharing website) user, talking about how many companies PG has invested in, including Airbnb, Dropbox, and Reddit, all incubated by his Y Combinator. To put it simply, this guy is extremely arrogant, but also extremely fond of talent. He wrote a very famous article called "How to Do What You Love," which is practically a must-have copy in the startup world.

PG's email was much shorter than Bruce's, just a few sentences. He noticed Chen Yiran's web-scraper and this request for help, and thought Chen Yiran was a talented developer, asking if he would be interested in coming to YC to chat.

I have to admit, it's very tempting. Just think about the successful companies that Y Combinator has invested in. They have mature mechanisms to help you run your company.

But that's for companies; my situation is different. My long-term goal is to move towards AI, and even brain-computer interfaces.

This requires an enormous amount of funding, as well as more practical considerations.

Jasmine Tools No. 1 is positioned to make a quick buck, and its core functionality is already complete, requiring neither funding nor incubation resources. What it wants is patent protection, and then it waits for Microsoft to take the bait. If it gets into Y Combinator, even just a small angel investment from PG, it means giving up equity.

Furthermore, once PG considers you his child, he will be extremely protective of you. But the other side of this protectiveness is that he feels he has the right to interfere in all your decisions. I've read many entrepreneurs' memoirs in my past life, saying that PG would directly tell you what to do and what not to do, and his words were like holy decrees within the Y Combinator system.

Forget it, I've already been reborn. There's no need to hire a sugar daddy for a little money.

The third one was an internal message.

The sender is mojombo.

The self-introduction was Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder of GitHub. Chen Yiran clicked on the profile to confirm that it really was an update that had brought the site administrator over.

Tom's message was quite casual. He said he had been following the web-scraper project and thought the code quality was very high. He was now asking about any patent-related issues he had encountered, and that he had a suitable lawyer in Silicon Valley.

Chen Yiran replied, saying that he had a project that was already completed and felt had great potential. He wanted to register a patent, but there were too many law firms in Silicon Valley and he didn't know how to choose.

Tom replied immediately, saying that if the issue concerned software patents and mergers and acquisitions of large companies, he recommended a law firm called Fenwick & West.

He used this company for both his own early funding and GitHub's. He then provided two names: Ted Wang and Stuart Meyer. Ted is his friend, in charge of the startup aspect, and a very nice person. Stuart is the head of the intellectual property department, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford, understands low-level hardware and complex software architecture, and has handled many software patent disputes involving compilers and operating systems.

Fenwick & West.

Founded in Silicon Valley in 1972, this law firm boasts clients including Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft. It's essentially the go-to law firm for Silicon Valley's high-tech companies. Information on Ted Wang and Stuart Meyer is available on their official website.

Chen Yiran had indeed looked up this law firm before, but the official website wouldn't leave the boss's phone number; it would definitely be the phone number of someone under him.

If he were to proceed step by step, who knows how long it would take? He had never considered going directly to a law firm of this caliber.

Chen Yiran quickly thanked Tom and hoped that he could help with the introduction.

Tom immediately called, saying he had already spoken to Wang and told him to call directly.

That's what tech geeks are like. They don't even bother to meet in person for something as trivial as this; they just send a few emails and call it a day.

Without hesitation, Chen Yiran quickly dialed the number. Surprisingly, it wasn't from the office; it was Wang's private phone.

"Hey, hello, this is Ted Wang. You must be Chen, right? Tom mentioned you to me, saying your code is fantastic. He said you're an independent developer with a completed software project that needs patent registration and related legal advice?"

It was actually Mandarin Chinese, and the accent was quite authentic.

"Well, although my surname is very Chinese, what if I'm of Chinese descent and don't speak Chinese, or what if I'm Vietnamese or something?"

"Haha, well then, I apologize. But Tom gave me your website ID, and I think I understand your name. Chen Yiran, right? Only Chinese people can come up with a name like that. Alright, let's get down to business."

"Okay, I have a project that's been completed and I need to register a patent. I also have some strategic compliance questions to ask, since I'm still on an F1 visa, so I need to ask if there are any special considerations."

"No problem, we specialize in this. When would be a convenient time for you to come over and chat? Our office is in Mountain View."

"Tomorrow, how about 3 PM tomorrow?"

"Let me see. Tomorrow is Tuesday, right? Okay, then tomorrow at 3 PM."

"Okay, see you tomorrow."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Yiran sat back down at her computer.

There's another important thing to do: I can't just ignore all the concern from so many big shots; I have to give back.

I wrote long, detailed replies to various influential figures, basically saying that I had found a reliable lawyer and thanking them for their concern.

Then it's back to work: applying for patents, which requires the lawyers to understand the basics. I need to write technical specifications, draw flowcharts and architecture diagrams, and give a general overview of the source code capabilities. Thankfully, none of this is too troublesome.

"Jasmine, let's get started."

Okay, let's start writing now.