Chapter 329: Not A Big Problem

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Sarrot Research Institute

Five resignation letters were placed on the table.

Professor Sarrot didn’t even bother to look at the letters. On the other hand, Lu Zhou picked up the letters and read them curiously.

Then, Lu Zhou knew why Sarrot was so angry.

It was obvious that Sarrot wasn’t well-liked among the research institute employees as they had all insulted him in the resignation letter.

But this made sense. Before Lu Zhou acquired the research institute, Sarrot was months behind on his researchers’ salary. If it wasn’t for Lu Zhou, many of these researchers wouldn’t have gotten their pay.

“This bunch of scumbags!”

Sarrot sat next to the office desk and was full of anger.

Suddenly, the office door opened, and his research assistant walked in with a stack of documents.

The assistant whispered nervously, “Mr. Sarrot, the documents that you wanted…”

The research assistant looked away from Sarrot while speaking.

Lu Zhou shook his head, smiled, and reached out his hand.

“Give them to me.”

“Okay, professor…”

The assistant sighed in relief and quickly left the office.

The assistant diligently closed the door.

Lu Zhou sat down on the sofa and began to flip through the documents.

The documents were divided into two parts; one part was the original contracts of the employees that were leaving, and the other was the loss assessment report.

Mobil Chemical was very fast, and Professor Stanley was decisive.

The battle had just begun, and they already poached five researchers.

Since this was San Francisco, Lu Zhou could easily find replacements. However, the problem was that they had to train the new employees all over again.

Because of the resignation of the five employees, the research progress of Sarrot’s laboratory had stagnated.

If this was the only thing, then it wouldn’t be that bad.

In a middle-level research institute with a well-managed system, even researchers who were responsible for the same project could not access all the experimental data.

However, this was the problem.

One of the research assistants called Ricardo could leak out the information.

Mentioned in this loss assessment report, the data that the research assistant had contained the spatial structure of the carbon molecules and some mathematical models that had yet to be perfected…

Although there was no direct evidence that he would leak the information, this type of thing didn’t require evidence at all.

However, Lu Zhou was relieved.

Sarrot couldn’t help but ask, “Are you not worried at all?”

“It’s only five assistants,” Lu Zhou placed the document on the table and said, “it’s not a big problem.”

“Not a big problem?” Sarrot looked at Lu Zhou in disbelief and said, “This is bad! Not only do they know our research progress, they know exactly what we are researching!”

“Don’t be so scared, my dear Professor Sarrot.” Lu Zhou then said, “This is San Francisco, you should understand that jumping ship is normal.”

Professor Stanley Whittingham was also a big name in the field of lithium batteries and was the director of the Institute of Materials Research at Binghamton University in the State University of New York.

Thirty years ago, under ExxonMobil Chemical, he developed a TiS2/Li lithium battery system. Due to the lithium dendrite problem, it couldn’t be commercialized.

Lu Zhou was a newcomer in the field of materials science, therefore his reputation wasn’t as good as Professor Stanley’s.

Also, Stanley was not alone. The major shareholder behind his lab was the famous ExxonMobil; the real industry giant that even Umicore was afraid of.

Regardless, it was what it was, and there was no point dwelling over the past.

Lu Zhou thought for a moment before he made a decision.

“We have the non-compete agreement and the non-disclosure agreement, so we can just sue ExxonMobil and make them pay the price.”

“This doesn’t hurt ExxonMobil, and we have to hire expensive lawyers,” Sarrot said. He then cursed, “This group of a*sholes!”

Lu Zhou shrugged and said, “No worries, we have the upper hand. I will let Star Sky Technology handle the case and hire the best lawyers in New York.”

Although Lu Zhou was an easygoing person, he would never allow people to play outside of the rules.

If someone was willing to steal intellectual property from him, then they had to be prepared to be sued!

According to the previously signed non-compete agreement, researchers who left the job in abnormal procedures would be prohibited from doing work in related fields for five years. Otherwise, they would bear an additional penalty. Especially for Ricardo, Lu Zhou intended to sue him for commercial espionage, and depending on the seriousness of the circumstances, this crime might be subjected to criminal charges.

Lu Zhou said, “Also, we have to strengthen our confidentiality measures.”

Professor Sarrot said, “I will ask the legal team to rewrite our confidentiality contract and non-compete agreement.”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “You also have to remember that you can’t always retain talent and that your opponent can always afford a higher price than you.”

For companies, the corporate culture mattered. For research institutions, what mattered was the scientific research environment created by well-known scholars, top of the line equipment, research results, and management system.

This was the price for research.

“I know, now is not the time to talk about these things. What next?” Sarrot looked at Lu Zhou and asked, “Should we continue to fight with Mobil Chemical on this?”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Of course, we shouldn’t change our research direction because of something so small.”

Sarrot said, “They have ten times our manpower, doing ten times the work. To put it bluntly, we have no chance at all.”

Lu Zhou looked at Sarrot and was helpless.

What should I say?

The HCS-1 material was accidentally obtained when he was studying the caged carbon molecule, and it was Sarrot’s research institute that produced the two theses.

But neither the caged carbon molecule nor the research project by Sarrot had anything to do with lithium-sulfur batteries.

Sarrot’s research was only to complete Lu Zhou’s system mission.

Obviously, he couldn’t say this to him.

Lu Zhou wasn’t sure if telling Sarrot the truth would make him feel better…

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