- The trial begins in Delaware, with an array of expert witnesses and consultants summoned to assist. On the last day, both Juri and Brian take the stand.
- The German innovators reached Delaware, America, in 2018 to seek justice. It has been 25 years since Juri and Carsten had the idea for Terravision. At the trial, Warren Stewart representing Google stated that his client doesn't make any money with the virtual Earth View program directly.
However, Lea's tech expert, Ms. Martinez, argued that while the company doesn't serve ads on its software, it does collect "user data." They have user information that they use for advertising. Hence, spending more time on the software provides them more information about the user that helps increase ad targeting and relevance. It is called the Network Effect. Therefore, the compensatory damage for the case was calculated on the number of users using the software per year. At a rate of 10 cents per user, the damage cost around 700 million dollars. The 10 cent per user rate was suggested by Carsten in one of his original written offer emails to Brian and Google.
Lea and Eric hire Ralph to prepare Juri and Carsten for the stand. Appearance, confidence, posture, tone. Warren starts his questioning of Carsten and quickly establishes that all the elements needed for Google Earth were already in the public domain. So, technically Terravision had no intellectual property in their software. Warren's questions are fast and furious and push Carsten into a corner. Carsten smartly uses the suggestions from Ralph to break Warren's rhythm. He establishes that Google did not invest search algorithms or even email, and yet they used the technology for new use cases, which is what Terravision did. He points out mistakes in Warren's questions and eventually makes him withdraw a few questions.
Lea hired a tech expert, Dr. Callaghan, to study the algorithms used in both software. According to his study, the source codes of both the programs shared similarities, and thus there was a direct case of patent infringement. However, the non-technical jury failed to understand a word Callaghan uttered, and therefore his analysis didn't amount to anything substantial. Warren establishes that Callaghan is being paid by Art+Com for his testimony for the case. His hourly rate is $400, and he has already spent 310 hours on the case. Plus, Callaghan is an expert on imaging systems and not Geo-graphical information systems. The Jury is not able to understand the difference and only takes away that Callaghan is not an expert in the field related to the case.
Google's technical expert Dr Chen testifies that Google uses a different technical process in the algorithm and doesn't get into the tough technical details. Lea establishes that no Google technical expert worked with Dr Chen to prepare her presentation, including Brian. The presentation was prepared in collaboration with the lawyers.
Eric coaches Juri not to answer any questions about the Chaos Club, as it is a criminal organization who hacked the Pentagon. Juri is upset at this assertion. Juri says that being part of the Club was a badge of honor and they wanted to create things of beauty. Juri is not ready to disavow his part even though Carsten reminds him that everybody including Lea and Eric have high stakes related to case, and Juri would not want to be the reason for their failure. That night Juri contacts his old colleague at the Club and finds that he never filled a form to formally join the Chaos Club. He was never officially a member and thus he doesn't have to lie at the stand.
Warren's questioning with Juri focuses on that he never wrote to Brian that he was infringing on Terravision's patent. Juri says that he didn't want to jeopardize any future collaboration with Google.
The verdict of the case relied on Brian Anderson's testimony. At first, Brian denied remembering Juri and Carsten and their meetings in Silicon Valley and Berlin. He even refused to accept that he had ever told Juri that Terravision inspired his software. As Brian turned down the truth, the jury went with the flow and decided against Juri and Carsten. The judge announced the verdict, in which the jury rejected all the acquisitions and claims made by Ant+Com. Google was discharged from the charges, and Juri and Carsten returned to Berlin with nothing. The trial cost each party $20 million.
In the end, Juri and Carsten didn't get the fame and money for their invention that they deserved. But they did get one thing: Each Other. The Terravision lawsuit brought the friends back together. Juri decided to move to Berlin and work with Carsten again. He already had an idea for a secure messaging service with encrypted HTTPS access (Signal) and would probably work on that.
The inventors will begin again, again from scratch, to revolutionize the world. They may not have become rich or famous or turned into world leaders. But they changed the way we see the world. And that's their story, that no one can ever steal from them. One can steal an artist's artwork, but he or she cannot steal the artistry.
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