Chapter 93 Seeking Advice from You

After Zhang Pengfei finished speaking, he sat down on his own. What was there for a mere legal assistant like him to be afraid of?

If Li Jianren dares to disrespect Chen Jingyang, he will dare to disrespect Li Jianren!

Chen Jingyang tried his best to suppress his smile and said to him in a feigned tone, "Tsk! No manners!"

Then, he lazily raised his glass and said to Li Jianren with a smile, "Engineer Li, the kid is just being silly and doesn't know any better. Don't mind him."

Li Jianren gave an awkward laugh and could only tilt his head back and down the drink.

The following morning at 9:30, the final round of on-site negotiations between Tanzhi and Zenti began in Conference Room 001 on the top floor.

If all goes well, after this round of negotiations, the legal teams of both parties will revise the contract text based on the consensus reached, and a signing ceremony will be held the following day.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, everyone took their seats, and Robert Stephen, Zenti's Global General Counsel, got down to business:

"Regarding Annex 4, Section 7.2, on intellectual property rights, we reiterate that all optimizations and modifications based on our chip architecture should be owned by Zenti."

Attorney Zhou immediately responded: "Robert, we cannot accept this. The culmination of our algorithm engineers' wisdom has become your property simply because it runs on your chips. This violates the basic spirit of cooperation. Our position is: whoever creates, owns."

Li Jianren said, "From a technical point of view, without our underlying instruction set and hardware design, these optimizations would not be possible at all; they are natural 'derivative works'."

Technical Director Guo Longfei responded: "Mr. Li, our optimization code was developed independently. It only 'called' your interface and was not 'derived' from your code. We can grant you a free, non-exclusive license to use it, but ownership must belong to Tanzhi."

After the translation was finished, John Cramer stroked his chin and tapped his right index finger lightly on the table, and the conference room fell silent for a moment.

Chen Jingyang waited for half a minute before saying, "John, we've invested $1.5 billion and a top-notch team in this project, not to work for you. IP rights are our bottom line. If this cannot be guaranteed, today's meeting can end early."

John Cramer sighed slightly: "OK, Yang, we can compromise, ownership is yours. But the license must be perpetual, irrevocable, and sublicensable to our clients and partners. That's our bottom line."

Chen Jingyang looked at Attorney Zhou, who nodded and said, "Okay. But a clause must be added: when this license involves our core algorithm, any further authorization must be approved in writing by us."

John Kramer paused for a moment, then finally nodded: "OK, deal!"

And so, the two sides engaged in a heated debate, going back and forth, until 5 p.m., when only the last issue of data sovereignty remained unresolved.

Robert reiterated, "We maintain that the definition of 'derived data' should include both model output data and user interaction data, which should be shared by both parties."

Attorney Zhou shook his head: "User interaction data is our lifeblood and core trade secret, and there is absolutely no possibility of sharing it. There is no room for discussion on this point. The model output data, after being thoroughly anonymized and aggregated, can be used for joint technical optimization by both parties."

John Cramer frowned. "But that greatly limits the value we can extract from the partnership."

Chen Jingyang's tone was firm: "John, user data is our red line. Having such a thought will destroy all trust between us. If Zenti's goal is to spy on our users, then the basis for cooperation no longer exists."

John Kramer and Robert Stephen exchanged a glance and whispered for about a minute. Robert Stephen nodded and said to Chen Jingyang, "We understand your sensitivity to data. So, we will no longer demand 'ownership' and agree that the 'user interaction data' belongs entirely to you. We only ask for unlimited, free access to the 'model output data.' Is that acceptable? This is our bottom line."

Attorney Zhou frowned and said, "The right to use is acceptable, but it must be limited; it cannot be unlimited. Also, what exactly do you mean by 'use'?"

Robert answered very quickly: "It's used in the usual sense, for researching, optimizing, and improving the quality of our products and services. It's a very standard clause."

Attorney Zhou fell into deep thought. On the surface, Zenti had made concessions, retaining ownership, and the right to use sounded vague and seemed acceptable. However, he felt that this clause was risky, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly where the risk lay or how to refute it.

John Cramer seized the opportunity and urged Chen Jingyang: "Yang, we have already made concessions. If you refuse again, our negotiations may have to stop here."

Chen Jingyang looked at Attorney Zhou, who took out two tissues to wipe his sweat and secretly gestured to Chen Jingyang under the table: Don't rush!

Chen Jingyang slowly picked up his coffee, stirred it gently with a small spoon, blew on it, and took a couple of sips—a strategic delay to buy valuable time for Attorney Zhou.

But those extra ten seconds were of no use; the more anxious I became, the less I could think of anything!

On Zenti's side, John Kramer and Robert Stephen exchanged a knowing smile, feeling that this time they should have a sure thing.

Chen Jingyang put down his coffee. Attorney Zhou's brows were still tightly furrowed, and he smacked his lips slightly, clearly still clueless.

There's no time left!

Chen Jingyang sighed and was about to speak when Zhang Pengfei suddenly interrupted, "Professor Zhou, President Chen, I have a question for the experts regarding this 'usual use,' may I?"

Chen Jingyang's eyes suddenly lit up, and he nodded: "Of course, go ahead."

Zhang Pengfei looked at Robert Stephen and asked sincerely, "Mr. Stephen, to avoid any future misunderstandings, I would like to make a deduction based on the extreme assumptions of your statement 'used to improve the quality of your products and services,' and ask for your guidance. Is that alright?"

Robert Stephen chuckled softly: "Of course, please go ahead."

He was deeply impressed by Zhang Pengfei at the dinner party yesterday—a reckless and immature young man.

"Suppose that one of Zenti's business units uses the output data of our model as a training set to develop an AI chatbot product that directly competes with Zenti's core business."

Zhang Pengfei deliberately slowed down his speech: "Excuse me, does this behavior fall under the 'usual use' you just defined as 'used to improve service quality'?"

Chen Jingyang's pupils suddenly dilated!

The air in the conference room froze instantly!