Football Dynasty

Chapter 173: Netscape Problem

"City played with solid discipline today; we didn’t just win because of our performance, but also because luck was on our side. Let’s hope it stays that way," a middle-aged man remarked thoughtfully as he reflected on the game.

As usual, just before the final whistle, Richard took a moment to engage with the fans. He walked along the stands, casually asking their thoughts on City. However, unlike the Brentford game, where people recognized him, this time he stayed anonymous, with a scarf wrapped around his neck, acting like a hooligan.

PHWEEEE!

The referee’s final whistle echoed across the stadium.

The fans erupted in applause, the atmosphere electric, especially the Cityzens, who were thrilled with the final moments of the match.

The last ten minutes had been a spectacle—tense, dramatic, and ultimately rewarding for those who had come to watch.

With back-to-back victories, City remained at the top of the rankings. In the same week—three days later, to be precise—City would welcome their first-round opponent in the League Cup at home: Plymouth, a team from the third tier.

After three days of rest, Manchester City was ready, but Richard was less concerned about that for now.

Because just now, his current partner, who is in the United States, his cash cow, Netscape, their founder just called him anxiously.

"Hello?"

"It’s me, Jim. Sorry for the sudden call, but can you come over here as soon as possible?"

Hearing the unmistakable panic in Jim Clark’s voice, Richard narrowed his eyes.

"What’s going on? Is something wrong?"

"Well... we might have to shut down the company."

"...What?"

With no other option, Richard, Adam Lewis, and Marina Granovskaia who currently serves as his personal secretary, quickly made their way to the United States in a hurry.

Inside the Gulfstream IV business jet, cruising at 10,000 feet, Richard sat in a wide seat, gazing out the window in deep thought.

In front of him were Adam Lewis, and Marina, who was assisting Lewis by reviewing the latest news and information about Netscape.

As soon as they received Clark’s call, the three of them immediately chartered the jet and were now on their way to San Francisco, the heart of Silicon Valley.

At that moment, Lewis, sitting across from him, placed the thick stack of documents he had been holding onto the table and spoke.

"Phew. This isn’t going to be easy."

"Do you think it will work against us?" Richard asked, turning his head to face him.

Lewis, removing his glasses after reviewing the lawsuit, replied, "Bringing in NCSA’s personnel is a problem, but the biggest issue is that the framework of the new web browser under development is essentially identical to Mosaic’s."

"Well, Jim Clark was the one who came up with the idea for Mosaic and led its development, so it makes sense."

Lewis then briefed Richard on the issue: When NCSA learned that Jim Clark had started developing a new web browser in Silicon Valley, they immediately filed a lawsuit against Netscape, claiming intellectual property infringement.

"That’s true, but as you know, since NCSA holds all the relevant patents, including the source code, if this goes to trial, it’ll be hard for us to win."

"How likely do you think it is that we’ll win?"

Lewis hesitated for a moment before answering.

"To be honest, it’s less than 50%, maybe even lower."

"If the chances of winning aren’t even half, that means it’s going to be difficult to win the trial."

Adam Lewis’s role in accompanying Richard to Silicon Valley was to provide accurate legal advice, and he spoke candidly without hesitation.

"That’s correct. The best option would be to reach an amicable settlement with NCSA."

Historically, when NCSA filed the lawsuit, Jim Clark reacted angrily and took the case to trial.

"But in the end, as he just mentioned, it was settled through negotiation."

From Clark’s perspective, as the one who came up with the idea and led the development, it must have been frustrating. But since NCSA held all the intellectual property rights, it had always been a fight they couldn’t win from the start.

Even knowing all of this, Richard had chosen to invest in Netscape alongside Jim Clark because there was value beyond this dispute.

"More importantly, NCSA still didn’t fully understand the immense value of the Mosaic web browser they had in their hands."

The lawsuit filed this time was, of course, partly about protecting intellectual property. However, the bigger issue was the resentment over the fact that they weren’t just trying to develop a new web browser on their own but also took a large number of staff from the research lab.

"What do they want?"

A million had already been invested, with another million following, and now it seemed like the company might close its doors before it even had a chance to go public.

Just a little more to go!

And Richard was definitely considering selling his shares in Netscape when its stock price was at its highest point in history.

"They’re demanding that we either stop developing the web browser based on Mosaic or acknowledge the intellectual property rights and pay a royalty of 50 cents per browser sold."

Hearing this, Richard let out a brief, ironic laugh.

"50% royalties? That’s basically telling us not to make it at all."

The internet was still in its infancy, and there was no real business model to speak of. As a result, programs like Mosaic were, for the most part, being used for free, except by corporations.

Netscape was different, though. With Richard holding shares in other internet companies like Infoseek, GeoCities, and Register.com, Netscape had found a way to make money.

Infoseek struck a deal with Netscape through Richard to become the default search engine on Netscape Navigator.

GeoCities, on the other hand, partnered with Netscape to drive traffic by allowing users to create their own websites for free while offering premium paid hosting services.

As for Register.com, it was a domain registrar that helped individuals, corporations, and other institutions register domain names for their websites. Through this partnership, Netscape made it easy for users to find and register domain names via Register.com, earning a share of the revenue from those registrations.

Within four months of its release, Netscape had already captured three-quarters of the browser market, becoming the main browser for internet users in a remarkably short time due to its superiority over competitors like Mosaic.

This made NCSA jealous and eager to cause trouble.

A year!

How was that even possible?!

That’s why, for Richard, the idea of paying a 50-cent royalty per browser didn’t sit well—especially since he was the one who had brought Infoseek, GeoCities, and Register.com into partnerships with Netscape. He had no intention of being taken advantage of.

He even considered calling a shareholders’ meeting to withdraw those partnerships from Netscape entirely, in case the negotiations didn’t lead to a solution that worked for him and Maddox Capital.

"This is an unreasonable demand, and NCSA knows it," Richard said.

As he crossed his arms, Lewis calmly continued, "If we file a counter-lawsuit and drag things out, we can probably negotiate a fair settlement." _{𝑛𝘰𝘷𝑝𝘶𝑏.𝑐𝘰𝘮}

That was the most practical approach, so Richard gave a slight nod and said, "We don’t have time to get bogged down by this. We need to hear Clark’s thoughts too, so let’s meet, decide on a response plan, and come up with a rough figure for the settlement."

"Understood."

After hearing his response, Richard turned his gaze to the side and looked out through the round window, watching an endless expanse of fields stretch beneath a blanket of white clouds.

A little while later, after landing at San Francisco Airport and disembarking from the business jet, Richard, along with Lewis and Marina, got into the waiting car and headed straight for Silicon Valley.

Netscape, which had recently received another million-dollar investment from Richard, had leased an entire floor of an office building on the outskirts of the Valley.

In the meantime, the team had grown rapidly, with the number of employees now exceeding 40. While a few new hires had come on board, most of the staff were key personnel from NCSA who had previously worked with Clark on the development of Mosaic.

Arriving at the new Netscape office, Richard was momentarily stunned.

"This is the company?"

Everyone looked like they had just rolled out of bed—disheveled clothes, messy hair, bleary eyes. It felt more like a college dorm during finals week than the headquarters of a multi-million-dollar startup.

Worse, the place was a complete mess. Cubicles overflowed with clutter: empty coffee cups, crumpled paper, half-eaten snacks, soda cans, and worn-out pizza boxes. The air was thick with the smell of caffeine, stale takeout, and raw ambition. And yet, despite the chaos, the room buzzed with a strange kind of energy—hyper-focused and obsessive.

"You’re not seriously living here, are you?" Richard asked, turning to Clark with a skeptical look.

Clark shrugged, completely unfazed.

"Why not? We’ve got a deadline. Can’t afford to waste time. Besides," he added with a bitter laugh, "NCSA’s already giving me enough headaches for a lifetime."

Without a hint of embarrassment, he grabbed a pile of blankets off the office couch, rolled them into a ball, and stuffed them into a corner. Then he motioned for Richard and his team to take a seat.

Richard shook his head as he sat down.

"I get that the launch is important, but you can’t burn out your team before you even cross the finish line. Push like this for too long, and you’ll all crash."

Clark waved it off.

"This is nothing. Back when we were building Mosaic, I lived in the lab. Slept under my desk for weeks. You just get used to it."

But his tone suddenly shifted, and his face darkened. His jaw clenched, eyes sharp.

"We poured our hearts into Mosaic—me and the team. And now NCSA has the nerve to sue us? After everything?" His voice rose. "They pushed me out, and now they want to bleed us dry!"

The anger in his voice was raw and personal.

Trying to ground the conversation, Richard asked quietly,"Did you go through the lawsuit?"

Clark nodded grimly.

"They want 50 cents per browser in royalties. Fifty cents! Do they think we’re made of money? That would kill us before we even break even!"

Richard exhaled, calm but firm.

"Honestly, I saw this coming. Getting mad won’t change anything."

Clark, still visibly worked up, softened a bit at Richard’s steady tone. His shoulders slumped slightly, and he looked over with an apologetic expression.

"I’m sorry, Richard. You believed in me. You put real money into this—and now..."

Richard just shrugged.

"It’s better that this happened now, before we go public. If we’d launched and then got hit with this, the fallout would’ve been a lot worse."

Clark nodded slowly, processing the thought. But doubt lingered in his eyes.

"So... what do we do now? NCSA isn’t bluffing. If they say they’ll sue, they will."

Richard looked to his side at Adam Lewis, who had been quietly listening the entire time.

"That’s his department," he said. "Let’s hear what the lawyer thinks."

Clark turned his full attention to Lewis, who straightened in his seat, cleared his throat, and began outlining the strategy.

"We have two options. First, we file a countersuit in California federal court. Now, yes, NCSA owns the IP on paper—but Jim here played a massive role in Mosaic’s creation. That counts for something."

"And the second option?" Clark asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Settlement," Lewis said plainly.

"Absolutely not!" Clark snapped, nearly leaping out of his chair. "I will never bow to those bastards. Never."

Lewis remained calm.

"I understand where you’re coming from. But legally speaking, NCSA holds all the cards. If we take this to court and lose, the damages could be brutal. They could even push to delay or block the release of the new browser."

"No!" Clark shouted, fists clenched. His pride—and rage—were boiling over.

"Look, we know the situation. NCSA’s claim is based on the fact that we used the Mosaic framework to build Netscape. But that’s not how it happened. The Netscape web browser doesn’t use any of NCSA’s Mosaic code! We’ve completely rewritten the core!"

Richard was taken aback by the declaration, and even Lewis was confused. This was different from what his client had told him.

"You all made it all from scratch?"

"Yes, exactly!" Clark nodded adamantly as he picked up his laptop and showed it to the three in front of him.

"To avoid trademark ownership problems with NCSA, we did not use any NCSA Mosaic code. The internal codename for the company’s browser was Mozilla, which stood for ’Mosaic Killer,’ as the company’s goal was to displace NCSA Mosaic as the world’s number one web browser."

They then saw a cartoon Godzilla-like lizard mascot, which went well with the theme of crushing the competition.

"..."

Richard then turned towards Lewis. "How is it?"

Lewis thought for a moment before answering, "If we can establish that Netscape’s browser is not a derivative of Mosaic—if we make the distinction clear to the public and the courts—it’ll strengthen our position. But that means we’ll have to show that the technology is distinct and that the development of Netscape didn’t rely on any proprietary code from NCSA."

"Don’t worry about that," Clark shook his head. "I can tweak the code enough so the original doesn’t leak."

After hearing that, Lewis nodded. "It won’t be easy, but we’ll make it happen. However, I was thinking of taking full control of the counter-suit. Would that be okay with you?"

"You’re going to handle it personally?"

"Yes."

"Then thank you very much," Clark said. "I’ve been wondering how to deal with those guys. If you’re stepping in, I’d be really grateful."

Only then did Richard, Lewis, and Marina realize that these guys had called them there asking for help not because they couldn’t handle NCSA—but because they were just too lazy and probably didn’t even want to leave the office!

Richard rubbed his temples after realizing he’d been tricked. He had thought these guys needed help, but it turned out they just wanted someone to clean up the mess for them!

"Alright, alright. By the way, what’s the plan for going public once the lawsuit is settled? Does that mean once the case is resolved, Netscape will go public right away?"

Suddenly, Richard felt an urgent desire to cash out his shares in Netscape!