Cave Refuge

After Dong Tianyu's efforts, by now, both Mrs. Thompson and Mr. Thompson were no longer surprised that Dong Tianyu could procure various ingredients and condiments at any time after the natural disaster had struck.

Although other families they knew were perhaps also facing food shortages, the Thompson Family's leap in status over time meant that the neighbors and new friends Mr. and Mrs. Thompson were in contact with generally had quite decent living conditions.

The greater the disparity in living conditions among the survivors became, especially after the Companion Spiritual Treasure chose its first branch for evolution, the Storage space was no longer just a rumored item.

After learning the precise method to acquire the Storage space and confirming that only a certain benefit was needed to 100% secure a Personal Space, it didn't take long for the Personal Storage Space, although not yet commonplace, to become a non-rare item among most wealthy families.

Just as Dong Tianyu was the first to obtain a Personal Space, those moderately well-off families began to stock up on living supplies as soon as they acquired their Personal Storage Spaces.

No one was a fool; after obtaining a Storage space with the ability to Time Freeze, many filled it with various survival supplies as their first action.

Due to the inherent hoarder nature within them, although most people in the camp lacked food and relied on daily labor to exchange for the Food Bricks paid by Madeline, there was still a small fraction of well-off survivors who, relying on their past accumulations, were living quite comfortably.

And now, those survivors who could live without any pressure to survive, and even engage in leisure activities like singing, dancing, and playing chess, inevitably had fairly good family conditions. Father and Mother Thompson befriended such people, naturally seeing things differently from when they were ordinary citizens before the natural disaster.

While this perspective might seem somewhat opportunistic, it was indeed the case: frequently interacting with friends of different statuses, they naturally viewed matters differently.

Maybe Father and Mother Thompson once felt pity towards some people, but as they interacted with and gradually absorbed the values exhibited by new friends over time, their attitudes towards certain matters subtly shifted.

As for this change, Dong Tianyu was actually pleased to see it happen, as with Dong Tianyu's supply of resources, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson no longer had to struggle like ordinary people just to scrape by with mere subsistence.

It was like that wealthy challenge task on the internet, where initially the wealthy were not allowed to use any external help, only relying on the hundred dollars initially given to undertake the challenge. The basic task was to live for a month, while the advanced competition was to see who could earn more money in that month.

At the beginning of the show, those wealthy contestants, completely forbidden any external help by the show's crew and unable to rely on their original status, couldn't secure any high-paying positions and ultimately, like ordinary people, found normal jobs and mechanically went to work.

During this process, it wasn't like they claimed in interviews where ordinary people wanting to advance should study more even in their free time from work.

Once these wealthy people personally experienced the hardships of ordinary people at work, when they returned home after work, they weren't studying to enrich themselves during their free time as mentioned in their interviews, but rather, like ordinary people, either relaxing by playing games or watching TV series.

Eventually, although one wealthy person earned five million in a month, it was because he had sold a patent.

Don't think that a patent is a complex thing; in fact, patents come in many forms and can be simply categorized into two types: technology patents and design patents.

To put it in layman's terms, a technology patent is like cooking: using the same raw materials, different processing methods represent different patents, like stir-frying vegetables and boiling vegetables theoretically being two completely different patents.

To obtain a patent in technological categories is actually quite challenging, as the manufacturing methods you think of might have already been conceived by predecessors and successfully registered.

In terms of technical patents, there might still be some barriers; however, design patents are essentially a trick to deceive various people. When sellers operate at night, they often boast about how many patents they hold.

If ordinary people hear this and see the patent certificates presented, they would believe the seller's product is of high quality.

After all, if the statements made during promotion were false, that would amount to false advertising. If someone were to report this, the advertiser would not only face heavy fines but could also end up in prison.

Therefore, some sellers exploit loopholes in the patent law, claiming they own numerous patents during the promotion — which truly isn't a lie.

The reason why it's said that these merchants are not honest is that the patents they hold are mainly design patents.

Claiming they own design patents is a way to fool people because applying for design patents is extremely simple.

Using a very simple analogy to explain, one could randomly draw a picture on a sheet of paper, and then apply for a design patent at the patent office for that drawing.

Not only is the application process for a design patent simple, but the administrative procedure is also very straightforward. If the appearance photos submitted for the patent show less than eighty percent similarity to existing patented designs, the design patent is granted directly.

At this point, some might not see an issue. However, the following analogy might challenge some people's viewpoints.

How are so many design patents obtained? Many have heard of the "trademark moat" strategy. For example, after owning the trademark "Zhang San," to prevent others from obtaining similar trademarks, besides owning the well-known trademark "Zhang San," manufacturers would also register similar names like "Zhang Yi," "Zhang Er," "Zhang Si"... a series that appears very similar.

The protection strategy for design patents works similarly. Using the Nine Square Grid metaphor, once they have secured a patent for an entirely red face, they will then apply for patents of other solid colors.

Besides solid color design patents, they will apply for a Nine Square Grid face with different colors, two faces with different colors, and so forth, continuing until they have patented every possible variant of appearance.

This analogy might seem exaggerated, but most ordinary products claiming to hold hundreds of patents, unless they are high-end high-technology products, largely hold those easily obtainable design patents.

Having understood the lesser-known aspects of design patents, consider a mogul who claimed victory by simply selling a patent in one month and earning five million dollars.

One would start to speculate, when the program team revealed the patent sold by this mogul, those unfamiliar with patents might admire the mogul's incredible personal capabilities. Despite being one person, he was still able to secure a new patent solely based on his intellect.

However, the remaining informed audience immediately understood upon learning that the sold patent was a design patent, this reality show ultimately couldn't escape the grasp of capital and became a tool in the hands of some.