'At the general managers' meeting today, a thorny issue was raised', Ed writes in his diary, 'it turns out we've had a cease and desist order from a major competitor company, General Linear Corp.'
'A month ago we started sampling selected customers with an energy harvesting IC, a new departure for us, and the first in a family of new products aimed at generating electric current from light, vibration, pressure etc,' continues the entry, 'if we continue sampling, or selling, the chip General Linear will take legal action for breach of their patents.'
'One of the general managers asks: "We've spent half a million dollars developing this family and that's down the pan unless we agree to take a licence off GLC, or go to court to argue the case which will cost another half a million, or we drop the product altogether and write off the half million."'
'"Surely", I told them, "the issue is whether our chip actually infringes any of GLC's patents."'
'"We've checked that. There's no doubt that we infringe their patents. The guy who designed our IC came from General Linear", said our general manager for analogue products, who then asked: "What I'd like to know is who signed off on this energy harvesting project. I didn't.'"
'There's a silence in the room. A few accusing looks. A bit of a muttering. Then one of them pipes up:
"Hold on, Ed, didn't you hire the designer of the energy harvesting chip? I remember you saying it was a hot new area we should be addressing."'
"And when he came here, you must have given him a budget to design the bloody thing," said another GM.
'Shit', Ed confides to his diary, 'this looks like a major cock-up. Still only 179 days till the IPO and then I'm out of here with a bloody big-bucks bunch of bunce.'
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