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But after a few seconds of hesitation, he handed me the model. “Be careful with that prototype. It’s delicate.”
“Yeah, yeah.” My hands seemed to know just how to manipulate it to make it move into its different positions, making critical pieces form significant angles—and I knew exactly why that was. “You know, my dad designed something really similar to this a few years back. Got a patent on it even. But he’s never done anything with it beyond that.”
Axel squinted at me. “This isn’t the sort of thing someone can just bang together over a weekend.”
I shrugged without losing my grip on the toy. “I guess not. But he used to have a model just like this one hanging around—wooden, not…” I didn’t know exactly how this prototype had been made. I wanted to say ‘plastic’, but Axel wasn’t the sort of guy you wanted to be making a mistake around. If it was something else and he thought I should have known it, he’d be going on about it possibly until the actual end of life as we knew it.
Unfortunately, he could already figure out I didn’t have a clue. “It’s a 3D printed prototype,” he informed me, folding his arms. “That’s everyone’s strategy these days for rapid prototyping. You can completely cut out the annoyance of having to deal with any external prototyping service. What was this about a patent?”
I wished I hadn’t opened my stupid mouth. Hearing about Axel Bennett’s business ideas was one of my least desired activities ever; discussing my dad’s stagnant entrepreneurial career with anyone was number one on that list. The fact that it was Axel just made it worse.
But I was here to support my friends, not to add to their drama, and I was the one who had brought this up. So I pulled out my phone and did the patent lookup for him. “Don’t ask me to explain it, because I really wouldn’t know where to begin. I have managed to stay surprisingly ignorant about all the stuff my dad is into—”
I made an annoyed noise at Axel when he took my phone off me to look at the document by himself. He scrolled up and down the page I’d presented with quick movements like he knew the interface well. Then he grimaced like he was actually having trouble with it and started flicking the screen first one way and then the other with his fingernail.
“Careful,” I said, “I don’t want scratches on that.”
Axel ignored me, obviously. I didn’t think he was trying to be rude. It was just that people like me weren’t of any significance to someone like him when he had a project in front of him.
This project clearly wasn’t making him happy, though. “This is your father’s patent? Jacob Anderson?”
“That’s my dad, yeah.”
“Jacob Anderson,” Axel repeated. He was going to have said my father’s name more times than mine at this rate. “And… he invented this, but he hasn’t done anything with it yet?”
“Well he built the prototypes. There’s about fifty of them cluttering up our garage at home and occasionally providing a nice nest for mice. He’s given a few out to friends as well, and he passed some on to one of those venture capital TV programs he was trying to get onto, but they never picked him. I think that still bothers him, like he’s convinced they’ve just taken his prototype to shop around to potential ‘inventors’ who would be more appealing on TV, or something…”
Axel was making an impatient grunting noise, so I took the hint and shut up. “So lots of people have seen this, is what you’re saying.”
“I guess? Is… that an issue somehow?”
“Maybe,” Axel said. “I guess you don’t know, but this patent depicts a product far too similar to the one I’m presenting here.”
I looked down at his wonky prototype still sitting in my lap. It hadn’t seemed notably like Dad’s to me, but I could see how it might be the same sort of thing when it was pointed out to me. Maybe it would have been more obvious if Axel’s was of the same quality as Dad’s, but this 3D printing was clearly the sort of thing where you got what you were paying for.
“Look, it’s obviously not something where he’s copied off your, um, work,” I said.
Axel glared at me and took his prototype back, cradling it to him like he knew I was thinking his baby was ugly. “I know he didn’t copy me, I can see the damn date on that patent. The question is, has he done anything with this idea except get a bloody patent on it?”
Discussing my dad being an absolute failure with a guy so rich he didn’t need his success, it was the ultimate nightmare. I really wished I’d kept my mouth shut. “He’s had some, um, difficulties the past few years.”
Axel looked at me the way Lucas had looked at me the other day when I said I thought single mothers deserved enough government benefits to not have to worry about working while their kids were young. “This is a problem for me. Now I’ve seen this, I know my product isn’t a unique invention. I’m going to have trouble pushing forward with my plan. I can’t patent the design myself now… I mean I’d go ahead with it anyway, because your father is a blatant patent troll, but if his design is already out in the local community that’s just going to fuck with everything.”
“Who do you think you are anyway, calling my father a troll?” I demanded.
“It’s the accepted term for what he’s doing,” said Axel. “Okay, serious talk now. How much would it take for your father to transfer ownership of this IP to me?”
“What?” It took me a few seconds to put together what he was asking. “No! No, he wouldn’t sell for any reason, trust me. He loves having that patent. It means so much to him.”
“No it doesn’t,” Axel said. “If it meant something, he’d actually do something with it. At the moment it’s just a crutch for him to use to convince himself he’s done something with his life when all he’s really doing is getting in the way of other people who do want to do something.”
My nails were digging into my palms. “You re not entitled to my father’s work, Axel.”
“I see no moral reason why he should be entitled to it either,” Axel retorted. “I want you to set up a meeting between the two of us. I may be able to offer him something agreeable.”
I knew how that was going to work. This handsome beast would swoop down on my dad probably wearing his third-best suit and bamboozle him with all sorts of bullshit until he thought handing over everything was what he wanted to do. “I’m not going to do that. And I don’t want you to try anything funny behind our backs, either. I’m sorry if this is some big inconvenience for you, but you’ll just have to come up with some other genius idea. Surely you’re capable of that.”
Axel gave me this outraged look like he thought I was deliberately having a go at him—well, I thought I was a bit too, but he deserved it. “This isn’t just any idea. And it’s basically criminal to hold onto it like this.”
