STICK IN THE VINE

I run up the stairs of the hotel, the elevator is crowded. Up the stairs, through the twists and turns of the banisters, I burst out of the thirteenth floor. I trot out, towards room 51, open the door " Sorry I'm late." I say Oops! I've forgotten no one can hear me, because I'm a ghost. I'm not just used to being dead. Sometimes I forget I don't posses a body that I roll my eyes , flip my hair and sashay past a hot looking guy, look left and right before crossing the road, or like what I just did, ran up the stairs when I could have just floated up. I stand at the entrance, looking at the two large polished tables with microphone stands on them, placed four feet side to each other with people sitting behind them. There is a witness box at the center of the room. Facing the box directly, a step higher than the leveled rugged floor is an office desk also with a microphone ,filled with papers and a man, crowned with grey hair sitting, looking piercingly through the rim of his glasses at the papers. I survey the table closer and I see a parcel on his desk with" Arbitrator "inscribed on it. I know these people or perhaps I don't know them all. My memory is fuzzy,I don't remember all I used to know but the I little remember, I do in great detail. Anyway, why should I know everything about anyone trying to hurt Shawty Rawlings, my friend since, forever. I walk towards her,She hasn't all changed. Still the collected person she'd always been when she needs to. Someone's late or not coming. I help myself to the empty chair beside her. . To her right is a big man with transparent glasses, wearing an unbuttoned black suit, shuffling the sheets of papers before him with his pink puffy hands. Directly behind the Big man is a man whose jaw line would cut straight at right angle ,folding his arm to his chest, his bulging eyes hovering round the room.And directly behind Shawty is a young guy,I remember him. Elfash's product development manager. I remember the first time he came in for interview as a product analyst at Elfash,he was eighteen, bangs toppling down his forehead, he strode into the room where he was going to be interviewed, looking down at his shoes . I could count the number of times he looked up at any of us through out the interview. When he left to wait outside for results, Shawty asked the four of us in the room what we thought about him. Benjamin and Fiona pointed out his lack of a college degree made him less suitable for the job, Nora agreed with them but said his confidence level could be worked on. "Danielle? What do you think? Shawty asked. "He has the rudimentary requirement for the job, his confidence, as Nora has said could be worked on, all he needs is the right books and training to make up for the college degree" I said. "We will take him and train him" Shawty voiced. That decision of hers didn't prove fatal. At nineteen, he had risen to the post of product development manager, bringing ideas that raked in millions of dollars for Elfash .He is twenty now with some level of calmness and composure, he's changed . Shawty crosses her legs on the thighs,eyes staring ,fixated at the Arbitrator. The door opens, Nora, Shawty's dark and curvy P.A trots in. " Hi Nora" I say. Yeah, she can't hear me. She bends to have her seat on the empty seat . Which isn't empty because I'm sitted. But she can't see me so it's empty. I spring up look as her black body and curly dark hair tilts towards Shawty. "Compatz has kept this proceeding confidential. I have spoken to some bloggers and journalists if it turns out to go public " Nora whispers into Shawty's ears. Shawty nods and keeps her face tight and steady. I saunter towards the Compatz group table, gawk at their faces, especially Micheal Pons who Shawty had told me she'd like to scratch off his face with her fingers. He tightens his grim look at the arbitrator as his lawyer shuffles the deck of files in front of him. I draw closer to him, trying to lend a friend a helping hand ,as I begin to scratch his face. He isn't whining, just looking through me. I stop, sit on the table Shawty's side as the arbitrator clears his throat. "Thank you gentlemen and ladies for being able to meet outside the room, I do hope we're able to make an agreement so that this dispute need not go to trial. Shall we begin attorneys" "Thank you, your honor . I'm Christopher Stanhope , attorney representing the plaintiff , Compatz.My client is suing Elfash for infringing on her intellectual rights to authorize ,produce and use the Boray on her Bag With Fashion also known as BWF. Elfash also directly modelled the BWF to the edges of my Client's Smifex ladies bag and finger scanning technology.This contravenes to the United states of America copyright acts which states that permission to use copyrighted material and intellectual property is granted by the author and any bridge of this, assumes due compensation and settlement. With this your honor, my client is willing to settle out for the sum of a hundred million dollars and fifteen percent profit of sales from BWF". Christopher Stanhope says and withdraws from the microphone. What? Shut up legal thief. A hundred million dollars for what Shawty spent hours upon hours on , is what you want to claim rights on? Damn you. Thieves all over. Defending council?". The man on glasses adjusts the microphone to position slightly below his mouth. His elbows on the table, I feel the table legs sleep to the sides due to his bulk. " yes,your honour, I'm Alex Cornwell, attorney representing the defendant, Elfash against the indictment of the plantiff Compatz. "What are your evidences to prove your claim of infringement responding council?" " yes your honour" Christopher Stanhope places two bags on the table. " The bag on my left is the smifex model of my client and to my right is BWF of the defendants. Your honour, the defendants directly copied the frame edges of the smifex. This is pointer to the demeaning fact the BWF uses finger scanning technology to allow users gain exclusive access to the bag through their fingerprints, the defendants made use of the Boray and called it magnetic ray imprints, which completely eliminates the use of zips in bags.These and many more are innovations by my client,Compatz, which made her stand apart in the market and breaking paths from the existing unsatisfactory brands in the fashion world, and also creating a space in the hearts of loyal customers who recognize the brand by these features, a leverage which Elfash is honing on. Your honour , I'd like to call my witness to the box to further my evidences." Attorney stanhope says retracting from the microphone. Michael Pons, Compatz president, dabs his face with his handkerchief,tilts towards Stanhope, raises his hand to his big puffy lips, whispering into into the attorney's ears,. I turn to look at Shawty, her blue eyes edging out of the rim of her drinking cup, firm at me, sorry, at the starry space through me. The arbitrator gestures Christopher Stanhope to go on. A young man about twenty five walks up to the stand box with Christopher Stanhope. The arbitrator makes him swear about telling the truth and of course, telling nothing but the truth. "Please state your name and what you do for a living for the record?"Christopher Stanhope says. " Dean Rodriguez, I'm Ceo and Chief analyst at Derod Ray Research institute." " Have you had any form of relationship with Compatz in the past ?" " yes" Dean Rodriguez answers, gripping his hands to the beam of the witness box. "What form?" " I helped design and install the Boray into the Smifex ladies bag" " how long ago was that?" "Two years" "In the course of your working with Compatz did you have anyone assisting you?" " No, except sometimes when the company's president , Micheal Pons came around" " So you had no one else working in the institute?" "No, Brian Scott was working with me . But on a different project". Brian's face flush red, the veins of his temple throbbing. "Since when have you known Brian Scott?". Christopher Stanhope asks, one hand in his pocket, the other raising a pen to his chin, ambling back and fort. "Five years" "Did Brian Scott have access to your workspace at that time when you were working on the Boray?" " Yes he did" " Did Brian probe you while you were on the Boray for Compatz?" "Yes he did" " And did you answer all, out of your deepest trust for him ?" He hesitates" I answered those I thought were harmless and posed no threats to the project." He says. "Were you taken aback when Brian Scott decided to leave you for Elfash just a week after you recorded a huge success with the Boray?" "Yes I was, I couldn't think of anything at that time" "Now that you've thought properly about the situation .when you saw the BWF, seeing it was a replica of your sweat, something you've been proud of being the first and authority when it comes to applying rays to fashion. Tell me, tell us, tell this honorable house.What are your thoughts about it all?" Christopher Stanhope says, his eyes pretzels with Dean Rodriguez. " Brian gave it to them." Dean Rodriguez says , looks aside, hands tense against the witness box. " Those questions of his were just a thought of yours to be harmless, but he, Brian Scott, betrayed your trust and made those answers of yours potent , causing grave harm to everything you hold dear in your field right?"Christopher Stanhope says, pauses with one hand still in his pocket. " I don't know". Dean Rodriguez says, his voice low and hoarse. He faces the arbitrator "That'll be all your honour" The arbitrator drops his pen from the notes he'd been taking. He raises his head at Shawty's table. "Does the Defending council have questions for the witness?". Alex cornwell traipses to the witness box. "Mr Rodriguez, in your examination, you said Brian Scott had access to your work space is that correct?" "Yes" Alex Cornwell folds his hands to his back. "How much access did he have. Could he come in anytime he liked, whether you were around or not?" " Only when I was around" "How inquisitive was Brian Scott when he was with you ? I mean, was it only when you were working on the Boray he asked questions from you?" "No, he was inquisitive about things" "So Mr Rodriguez, you deem fit to say that the infinitesimal amount of time you were able to spare to answer Brian's questions, in the light of the rigorous amount of work to be done, was enough to make a teenager at that time who had no fundamental knowledge about what you were doing, was enough to make him understand and make a replicate of it, is that what you are saying?" Dean Rodriguez keeps mute, looking as though he's about to disappear.The room is silent. " Mr Rodriguez, can you answer that question?" The arbitrator says. " I don't think so, but there was no other way of manipulating magnetic fields to act like rays. Except the model I proposed" Mr Rodriguez says, frustration welling behind his voice. " In how many ways can you get the colour white, from mixing other colours?" Alex Cornwell asks, pressing his massive body towards Dean. "Three? I don't know, why?" "You were so focused, as an authority, on the only means you knew about manipulating fields that you couldn't accept the possibility of seeing any other means of going about it.An innovative endeavor Brain and Elfash pressed towards and achieved through sheer focus and hard work." He says and reconstitutes himself "That'll be all your honor." Dean Rodriguez leaves the witness box and mopes back to his place beside Christopher Stanhope. Micheal Pons tightens his puffy mouth, steam rising of his ginger coloured hairs. The arbitrator focuses on his jottings with an intensity as though he is writing an exam. This serves Alex Cornwell the opportunity to get some papers . "We can proceed ,Attorney" The arbitrator says, laying down his pen. " Yes your honor, It is a cliché that a cornered buck fights and jabs the hardest . That's the beauty of it, Clichés are those jewels we've come to detest. He ran like a mad man, he sang like a bird or let me rephrase my first example. A cornered company fights and jabs the hardest." He says, looking in the direction of Compatz group table. He pauses and stares.He in the space of an heartbeat, he steps on to continue. " with a plummeting market share value, five hundred million dollars in debt, massively withdawing investors. It isn't a surprise, to the plantiff,all colours will look like theirs . Your honour, I'll call on my first witness to further discumber this conjecture of moral voidness." This is getting serious, I no longer have the appetite for heated arguments or tension. I lost everything before I died. Come on, do you guys have to die before you get out of this room and appreciate every moment you have? I look at Shawty, nodding gently in response to Nora's whisperings. Clothes cover alot, she's as calm as water.Oh, no clichés. Is as calm as a sleeping three month old baby also a cliché?Anyone that fits, her calmness is firm on the surface. I guess that's part of what being a leader entails- Keep your nuts together even if you're burning inside. Alex Cornwell gestures Brian to the witness box. He walks, trying to tuck in his tucked in shirt. I get that, when your shirt is tucked him but you still have that feeling it is flailing right behind you " You're Brian Scott, is that correct?" " Yes, t -that's correct" Brian answers in a shaky voice, his neck blotching red. " What is your position at Elfash?" "I'm the product development manager at Elfash" his voice ringing high at the mention of this, obviously proud of the group he belongs to. "You left Derod research institute to Elfash a week after the Boray was completed, why?" " I wanted to be part of a family that Elfash presented herself to be. The isolation at Derod was too much for me. Secrecy and all was too much for me. " " Are you saying you knew nothing about the entirety of the project as at the time you left?" " Yes, I knew nothing about it" "Can you brief us a little about how you came about the magnetic ray imprint to convince this house, it isn't a seriate version of the Boray?" " Yes, Shawty brought the idea about how we should work towards eliminating zips in our bags. Opening and closing by itself at your command. More fashionable, able to accommodate items and still retain a degree of lightness and compactness. After much brainstorming we decided to use magnets since they can attract can retract objects. That solved the problem of opening and closing of different chambers of the bag. The major problem was that ,varying type of magnets don't retract easily. Like when it attracts an object, it doesn't let go. Except we use temporary magnets and that meant introducing electricity into the bag. It wasn't safe and just didn't feel right. Many of us objected . When the batteries die , the bag is vulnerable to theft and it didn't make sense to be changing batteries on bags when they aren't toys. So we thought of making the magnets more fluid, that's meant the fields could change so when you want to open and close ,the poles of the magnet change. When the first model was done, the opening and closing slits were snapping with a force which we didn't like, so we worked on the magnets then, in the course of working , we discovered that there were somethings we could manipulate, which I'm not going talk about because of confidentiality, we did that and we observed that the magnets acted like rays, no more rock solid , some became invisible. We lay it into our bag, connected another invention of ours, the imprint so that the bag, which was made from innovative materials, is exclusive to users and that was how Bag With Fashion(BWF) came to life". Brain says, standing at ease, hands crossed on each other in front of his groin like , like he's nailed it. He nailed it actually, but that was long. But ,I can't help noticing the use of we, us. I look at Shawty, pride of a leader beaming out of her features. " That does it your, honor, invention born out of necessity. Necessity,reason for every meaningful invention. Thank you honor." Alex Cornwell says, walking his enormous self back o his seat beside Shawty. The arbitrator takes notes. "Responding council? questions for the witness?" He says,sliding his pen down.Elbows on the table, arching his hands so that the fingertips of both hands can meet. Christopher Stanhope rises up to Brian with a sheaf of folded papers . " Do you use the social media, like f*******: and Twitter .Mr Scott?" Hello, Mr Stanhope, which teenager doesn't doesn't use the social media?How's that a point? Brian slouches his unfinished shoulders, ". Yes I do" "One should and would believe the incredible story you just told. It appears some stories shouldn't and wouldn't be believable even when they appear so" Christopher Stanhope unwraps the papers.He hands one over to Brian, clambers up to the arbitrator to give him a copy, Shawty's table. Where's mine? " On the 15th of June 2014, at 8:32 pm. You went up to Compatz twitter account and you said and I quote. " Wow, congratulations, ya'll , it's great being part of the making of a success. Hard work pays after all." Yes, You wrote that didn't you?" Alex Cornwell reads the paper like he's trying find some missing lines in it, that's what he's doing actually, isn't that what lawyers do? " I was ref..." " Didn't you Mr. Brian Scott?" Christopher Shanhope prompts, cutting Brian from explaining. " yes, I wrote it, I was..." "Being part of something means you know about that thing. Mr Rodriguez trusted you with answers to your inquisitive mind, and you pay back like this.He thought they were harmless, he never knew he was raising a .." " I was referring to the brief moment I watched him work hard at utit.The time I stood behind the door listening to the spark and buzz of of solderings. This was what I meant by being part of it. Part of it from behind the doors!!" Brain screams. " People only say they're part of something when they're really part and proud of it. From this chat, You were proud of the Boray, in the common sense of something you were part of, and not as you're expressing now, in anger. You can have your seat.." Christopher Stanhope says, pausing to let Brian hunker back to his seat. " Your honour, This has gone beyond doubt that Elfash infringed, using the Boray and the finger scanning technology. This your honour ,has gone beyond fair use. For the law states that the use of copyrighted materials, must be productive and must employ the quoted matter in a different manner or for a different purpose from the original. A quotation of copyrighted material that merely repackages or republishes the original is unlikely to pass the test. Your honor, the BWF didn't repackage the smifex, didn't transform the Boray into other productive endeavour. The BWF is just republished the Smifex, parading it as something different. Your honour, if justice is going to be served, and it must be served it favour of those who truly deserve it. That will be all your honour." He bows slightly, shuffling his papers back to his seat beside Pons. The arbitrator, scribbles, looks up and gesturing at Alex Cornwell if he has summarising notes. Alex Cornwell speaks without standing, shuffling his attention between the arbitrator and Chistopher Stanhope. "Your honor, the claims of the plantiff ;that my client infringed on her copyright are void, very void your honour.According the United States copyright acts, the copyright law only covers artistic expression and not useful articles.The fingerprint scanning program on the Smifex ladies bag is an article with different utilitarian purposes. It can be used on doorways, phones and other technological devices.If we're to look at it more closely, the smifex bag requires the use of the thumb for access, My client's BWF needs the forefinger. These are two and distinct parts of the body and.." "We used it first, and people recognise our products with it, you have no right" . Micheal, will you shut up and let us listen? " Mr Pons?" The abbitrator says. Micheal twitches his head , looking out of the window at the skyline, brows clenched. He hides his puffy lips and thrums his fingers on the table, Stanhope patting him on the shoulders. " you can proceed attorney". " yes your honour, The Us. copyrights acts fully supports the use of the magnetic ray imprint on bag with fashion(BWF), stating this in the copyright act of 1976, section 102 that,In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work. The magnetic ray imprint was totally stumbled upon during the course of research and assemblage on the part of my client . "The process of production of the BWF, is far apart from the Boray . This claim has with it proofs to show the daylight difference . If your honour can look into this the plantiff is just raising billows to severe my clients, as she is right now, then we'd know see all of these claims aren't in anyway solid .Thank you your honour". He withdraws from the microphone and rests his back against the chair. The arbitrator stops scribbling, poises his pen on the papers before him, examines his jottings for sometime.The room is silent, except the ticking wallclock directly above the dispenser. " Thank you all for being here, once again." The arbitrator says finally. "I've examined the , the evidences put forward by both counsels,they are very valid arguements.The law only protects ideas and not procedures for manufacture or production. Just , this is different . We have to establish the original idea was or wasn't stolen by a former staff and if the expression of the BWF is different from the Smifex. I'd set up a panel to investigate these ans will report bavk in seven days. So, we're ro gather in ten days, that's..." He says, checking his table, to like check the calendar. "Wednesday, 15th of march. Thank you all for coming once again." He says and rises , inserts in jottings into a file, and walks out the room.