January Managerial Duels

Everyone spends their weekends differently…

This Sunday, I once again took part in a managerial duel. This time, my opponent was the experienced Yulia Eliseeva, and my second was Mikhail Zaborov.

Yulia proposed a scenario involving copyright in source code. I know the subject well: first, I often delve into copyright issues at Rospatent, and second, I have been involved in two court cases concerning it.

I accepted the scenario, thinking about how deeply we might explore the details: periodic registration of rights with Rospatent, registering software as part of a utility model, applying the laws of different countries and so on. But Mikhail advised me not to dig too deeply, as the judges see that as an attempt to neutralise the scenario entirely.

Mikhail and I both enjoy unconventional new facts, and we came up with one, but decided to save it for a third round. Yulia is a methodical player, so we knew that was unlikely.

Yulia assigned the roles in the first round, choosing a pair with opposing interests. She tried to saddle me with a host of obligations to sign addenda, but I introduced a new fact: our team had only eight people. I insisted that we needed assignments for the creation of works made for hire, with the results formally recorded in acceptance certificates. It seemed to me that Yulia did not quite understand the fundamental difference between a job description and an assignment to create a work made for hire. At the end of the round, she claimed that entries in an internal system would be sufficient evidence in court. I knew for certain that they would not, but rather than push too hard, I said I was “not sure”. A couple of judges later held that phrase against me.

In the second round, Yulia took a position that contradicted the scenario. Mikhail objected, and the referee, Alexander Shevchuk, established that Yulia had mixed up the roles. This threw her off, and of all the available options, she chose the path of least resistance. Mikhail called a time-out, and we discussed two possibilities: continue under the same conditions and guarantee victory, or lock in the current state of play and use our prepared new fact. Winning matters less to me than enjoying the game, so I chose the latter.

I had not expected a third round, so I had not prepared the opening setup, and it ended up being rather long-winded. For some reason, though, I was convinced that Yulia would be so surprised by our move that she would have no answer. But Yulia kept her composure and responded very capably. I was the one who lost mine: I simply began running down the clock.

I knew the judges’ verdict could easily tip either way.

In the end, this was my first victory by a clear margin. I would like to thank both Yulia and Mikhail for a wonderful duel.