S04.E03: Intellectual Property

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

An overtired Richard pushes himself to the brink of sanity while trying to move ahead with his next big idea. Eyeing a comeback, Erlich pressures an uncooperative Jian-Yang. Monica sets a trap at Raviga to improve her standing with Laurie. Dinesh goes on a date; Big Head enters the world of academia; Gavin faces an unknown future.

Promo:

[Cthulhudrew]

Gilfoyle drinks Old Rasputin. Nice!

This show gets the best beer cameos.

So glad they gave Bighead a more prominent role on this show. His antics crack me up.

Edited May 8, 2017 by Cthulhudrew

[Nordly Beaumont]

Loved Jared's flash back and freak out when he saw the automated car. And the callback to the sesame seeds was sweet. 

Did Jared say Gavin threw a sloth down the stairs? 

Dinesh. That guy fucks! And now he's fucked. Unless Gilfoyle is fucking with him. Fuck.

Sleep deprived Richard amuses me like crazy. Loved him attacking the door. He really is a cautionary tale.

Erlich says "Chinese" the same way my 85 year old mother says "black."

[Rinaldo]

9 minutes ago, Nordly Beaumont said:

Did Jared say Gavin threw a sloth down the stairs?

He did. Given Gavin's penchant for poorly thought-through live demos with animals, one can easily imagine him using a sloth as a cautionary example to his audience.

[jbrecken]

Disappointed Gavin didn't bring in a prop animal for his swan song.

[Dots And Stripes]

I'm surprised Monica wasn't ready to tell Laurie SeeFood was bogus right away. I thought she would tell Laurie and then deny the pretend phone call if her co-worker tried to pin it on her. Did she have any plan at all?

Erlich being an awful human being amuses me way more than it should. 

I find Big Head and his failing upward hilarious but it does make me feel bad for Richard. Like here Richard is coming up with ideas and working hard, yet Big Head gets so much success just for doing nothing. 

[chocolatine]

Loved the physical comedy with Richard and the closet door, and Big Head accidentally becoming a guest lecturer at Stanford. Did the admissions officer say he went to ASU for fives *years* before dropping out?

However, I saw one glaring issue with the main storyline: doesn't Hooli own the patent that one of Peter's former business partners registered? Since Gavin has been fired from Hooli, he shouldn't have any rights to their intellectual property, so there's no point for Richard to go to him. It's Jack who's in charge of all of that now.

Speaking of Jack, do you guys think his request for the Hooli jet to drop him off in Jackson Hole was part of a long con to unseat Gavin? Like, he knew Gavin would become so obsessed about proving that Palo Alto is closer to Shanghai than Jackson Hole that he would fuck something up at Hooli?

[Cthulhudrew]

49 minutes ago, Dots And Stripes said:

I find Big Head and his failing upward hilarious but it does make me feel bad for Richard. Like here Richard is coming up with ideas and working hard, yet Big Head gets so much success just for doing nothing. 

I have a feeling when this show ends, it will be with Big Head as a second-time billionaire/CEO and everyone else failing or still trying to find their niche.

39 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

However, I saw one glaring issue with the main storyline: doesn't Hooli own the patent that one of Peter's former business partners registered? Since Gavin has been fired from Hooli, he shouldn't have any rights to their intellectual property, so there's no point for Richard to go to him. It's Jack who's in charge of all of that now.

Not necessarily. I got the impression they hadn't yet formed Hooli, but were still in the process of trying to make a business for themselves, so they may not have been incorporated yet. If Gavin filed the patent personally then the rights would still be his unless he had later transferred them to his business entity. Given that he seems to only have done it to get Peter back on track with their budding company, he probably completely forgot about the patent, and likely doesn't even remember having it.

*Note, I am not a patent lawyer.

[chocolatine]

Just now, Cthulhudrew said:

Not necessarily. I got the impression they hadn't yet formed Hooli, but were still in the process of trying to make a business for themselves, so they may not have been incorporated yet. If Gavin filed the patent personally then the rights would still be his unless he had later transferred them to his business entity. Given that he seems to only have done it to get Peter back on track with their budding company, he probably completely forgot about the patent, and likely doesn't even remember having it.

But it wasn't Gavin who filed the patent, it was one of the other co-founders (Jared said "Brian Fung", I think). And then Richard immediately makes the leap that the patent belongs to Gavin, which makes no sense (unless there was a scene which was cut in which Jared explains why Gavin ended up with the patent as his personal intellectual property).

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Clips:

Not even Gavin Belson:

 

Dinesh's date:

[hoodooznoodooz]

I loved Dinesh going on and on about how much he loves water and ponds and lakes and then wondering where their waters were.

[Eyes High]

Someone on the /SiliconValleyHBO subreddit spotted Vanessa Marano's (Gilmore Girls, Switched at Birth) name in the credits and spotted the actress in the scene where Big Head realizes he's the guest lecturer. She's sitting a few seats away from him. 

[Traveller519]

13 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

He did. Given Gavin's penchant for poorly thought-through live demos with animals, one can easily imagine him using a sloth as a cautionary example to his audience.

Ladies and gentlemen of the board, consider the sloth... Slow, calculating, living high in the Costa Rican canopy away from predators. However in order to defecate, the sloth must climb down to the ground putting itself in harm's way in order to dispose of waste. To limit it's time in peril, when it does defecate, it disposes of up to one-third of it's body weight. Like the sloth we must put ourselves in danger by signaling to the market-place that we intend to sell the worthless pile of animal waste that is CyberDust to Marc Cuban, in doing so.... Wait... Is it actually shitting right now? Oh that's disgusting! Get it out of here! Ugh! I'll do it!

12 hours ago, jbrecken said:

Disappointed Gavin didn't bring in a prop animal for his swan song.

Ladies and gentlemen of Hooli Senior management, consider the Australian Mitchell Cockatoo.... 

[cyberfruit]

I have to say that I loved Jian Yang rolling Erlich right under the bus during that meeting. Just happily so. He's probably the most intelligent person in the house, and Erlich hates the fact that he can't bullshit his way around him. 

13 hours ago, chocolatine said:

But it wasn't Gavin who filed the patent, it was one of the other co-founders (Jared said "Brian Fung", I think). And then Richard immediately makes the leap that the patent belongs to Gavin, which makes no sense (unless there was a scene which was cut in which Jared explains why Gavin ended up with the patent as his personal intellectual property).

I questioned this, too. Unless the next episode explains how Brian Fung is either dead, that he sold the patent to Gavin (maybe spite Peter Gregory?), or that Gavin bought the patent from him, then this plot doesn't make sense. 

Edited May 8, 2017 by cyberfruit

[Meraji]

3 hours ago, cyberfruit said:

I questioned this, too. Unless the next episode explains how Brian Fung is either dead, that he sold the patent to Gavin (maybe spite Peter Gregory?), or that Gavin bought the patent from him, then this plot doesn't make sense. 

I just rewatched that part and Jared says he talked to Brian Fung, but only says one of them got a patent, not specifically Brian. And Richard asks something like "why didn't this guy act on it?" but doesn't use a name, either.

[Traveller519]

I do think Monica's smartest play here would be to say, "Laurie, thanks for giving me this assignment. It looks like Ed bought into this play sight unseen, but when I did my due diligence, there's nothing there. I don't have anything to work with here."

I did like how we got playoff from the new office space, though. I'm glad they circled back on that.

Edited May 9, 2017 by Traveller519

[icanfly]

I noticed a plot hole in this episode unless someone can point to me where it was explained but exactly what are the rest of the team doing now that piper chat was given to Hooli? I mean now there is no reason for them to still be there after Piper Chat was lost theres no more company and no projects? Are they just supposed to stay there and find another project to startup? I just think it should have been explained somehow to say ok let's start to packup.. Or let's find something new to work on.. seems they were just sitting around and happen to be free to do the seefood demo

[Cthulhudrew]

4 hours ago, Meraji said:

I just rewatched that part and Jared says he talked to Brian Fung, but only says one of them got a patent, not specifically Brian. And Richard asks something like "why didn't this guy act on it?" but doesn't use a name, either.

Because Jared's next line was about whomever bought the patent doing so to explicitly use it against Peter to make him focus on Hooli, that's why I inferred that it must have been Gavin, because that is such a Gavin move to make.

[sjankis630]

Can anyone tell me what the name of the book that Gilfoyle was reading when he was teasing Denish about the text message? The cover somehow looked familiar to something that I had read back in high school. I could be wrong of course.

[ottoDbusdriver]

1 hour ago, sjankis630 said:

Can anyone tell me what the name of the book that Gilfoyle was reading when he was teasing Denish about the text message? The cover somehow looked familiar to something that I had read back in high school. I could be wrong of course.

The book's title appears to be in Chinese both on the cover and the spine -- I got nothing.

[MaggieG]

I cracked up at Jared freaking out at the self driving car. 

Also when Bighead walked in wearing his Stanford jersey and he just talks and talks and then looks up and realizes Dinesh and Guilfoyle left the room.

Lauri is pregnant? I thought maybe the actress was pregnant and they decided to write it into the show but that looked like a fake belly so idk. 

[qtpye]

22 hours ago, Traveller519 said:

Ladies and gentlemen of the board, consider the sloth... Slow, calculating, living high in the Costa Rican canopy away from predators. However in order to defecate, the sloth must climb down to the ground putting itself in harm's way in order to dispose of waste. To limit it's time in peril, when it does defecate, it disposes of up to one-third of it's body weight. Like the sloth we must put ourselves in danger by signaling to the market-place that we intend to sell the worthless pile of animal waste that is CyberDust to Marc Cuban, in doing so.... Wait... Is it actually shitting right now? Oh that's disgusting! Get it out of here! Ugh! I'll do it!

Ladies and gentlemen of Hooli Senior management, consider the Australian Mitchell Cockatoo.... 

Brilliant...this post wins the internet for the day.  I wanted Gavin to get his comeuppance, not for Pied Piper, but for the shitty way he treats animals.

[ahpny]

Quote

 

Quote

However, I saw one glaring issue with the main storyline: doesn't Hooli own the patent that one of Peter's former business partners registered? Since Gavin has been fired from Hooli, he shouldn't have any rights to their intellectual property, so there's no point for Richard to go to him. It's Jack who's in charge of all of that now.

Not necessarily. I got the impression they hadn't yet formed Hooli, but were still in the process of trying to make a business for themselves, so they may not have been incorporated yet. If Gavin filed the patent personally then the rights would still be his unless he had later transferred them to his business entity. Given that he seems to only have done it to get Peter back on track with their budding company, he probably completely forgot about the patent, and likely doesn't even remember having it.

*Note, I am not a patent lawyer.

 

Patents aren't "registered." A patent issues from application if, and only if, the US Patent Office decides the application presents an invention that's novel and  non-obvious. There are many other requirements. Who owns a patent may have nothing to do with who invented anything. Almost all patents are assigned to others. Most large companies require inventions of their employees to be assigned  to the company (which results in the company owning all rights to the patent). There wasn't enough information in the episode to determine who owns that patent in question. But assignment records for patents are public. Anyone can find them if you know the patent number (which apparently the Piper crew does). What Gavin remembers about this patent, or why he or anyone else filed the application from which it issued, has nothing to do with who owns it. When Hooli formed (or was incorporated) may have nothing to do with who owns this patent.

[Moxie Cat]

On May 8, 2017 at 8:47 PM, icanfly said:

exactly what are the rest of the team doing now that piper chat was given to Hooli?

I got the impression that only days have passed since the underage user issue came to light. And the guys live there, after all - it's not like they'd immediately move out. Plus, originally, all of them were living there as part of Erlich's incubator, not because they worked for Pied Piper. So they're just rent-paying incubees again, until one of them puts everyone to work, which will apparently be Seefood or more likely, Richard's new venture.

[TaylorTalk]

On May 7, 2017 at 8:53 PM, Dots And Stripes said:

I'm surprised Monica wasn't ready to tell Laurie SeeFood was bogus right away. I thought she would tell Laurie and then deny the pretend phone call if her co-worker tried to pin it on her. Did she have any plan at all?

Erlich being an awful human being amuses me way more than it should.

I find Big Head and his failing upward hilarious but it does make me feel bad for Richard. Like here Richard is coming up with ideas and working hard, yet Big Head gets so much success just for doing nothing.

Maybe it's because she knows that Laurie can be coerced to do anything when she has a.....NSFW..... penis inside of her.
 

[woodscommaelle]

This is my favorite show on tv right now.

"Cheer up, Richard." lol

Whats the seasame seed thing? I don't remember that.

Edited May 13, 2017 by woodscommaelle

[kieyra]

On 5/11/2017 at 8:52 PM, woodscommaelle said:

This is my favorite show on tv right now.

"Cheer up, Richard." lol

Whats the seasame seed thing? I don't remember that.

It was a season 1 scene that was a showcase for the brilliance of Peter Gregory. It had to do with Burger King. :) 

[chocolatine]

11 minutes ago, kieyra said:

It was a season 1 scene that was a showcase for the brilliance of Peter Gregory. It had to do with Burger King. :) 

Here's that scene in all its glory:

[kieyra]

It always makes me wonder how many other scenes like that we missed out on.