The Emperor's Dragon II

Open and Shut

"How much do you know about the rights of villains who are sent to Tartarus?" Shunin asked, instead of explaining.

Mei shook her head. "Nothing," she replied. It wasn't something that concerned her. They were villains too, the worst villains so, they probably didn't have many rights. "Though what do you mean, sent to, aren't they sentenced?"

The lawyer gave her a small smile as if he was impressed that she'd picked up on that phrase. "Eventually sentenced, but the most dangerous villains are sent there upon capture. The villain All Might fought was sent there immediately."

Mei nodded. The media had said something like that but she hadn't paid much attention to it. There'd been way too many other things going on at the time. There still were too many other things going on.

"Now what is pertinent here, is that any possessions they have are catalogued and stored. What is not advertised is that if any of those possessions have a large worth, they are then usually sold or used as the HPSC and Tartarus Foundation see fit."

Shunin paused for her to take it in. Mei nodded, though she wasn't sure what a villain would have that could be useful.

"That includes support items," he continued.

"Oh," Mei said. She'd made the support item used by Izuku's dad. She owned that! It was her work to design and build it.

"I see you understand," Shunin murmured. "In this case, the technician at Tartarus scanned the parts into the Patent Register and found that they were already registered. From there, the tech reported it up the line and it has come to here."

Mei wasn't quite sure what to say. "I own those designs," she told the group. She was a bit annoyed that they were registered in the Patent Register already but if that was keeping them in her ownership, she'd overlook that.

"Because they were on a villain, ownership is disputed," Shunin told her. "Which is where I come in. If they weren't registered in the Patent Register, then we wouldn't be having this conversation but they were, so the HPSC and Tartarus Foundation just can't take those designs without opening themselves up to challenges."

Mei nodded at that. "You are telling me they thought no one owned them?"

"Oh, they knew someone designed the equipment, and therefore had intellectual property rights over that, but they weren't expecting the plans to be registered. Most equipment used by villains is custom made by people who do not want to be identified and therefore not registered, or it's mass produced."

"And the HPSC takes ownership of the custom made stuff?" Mei asked.

"Where it is useful, yes," Shunin told her plainly. "Usually there is nothing useful but sometimes-" he didn't finish because it was clear this case was in the sometimes.

Mei didn't say anything. She didn't know what to do here, and she'd learned at UA when you didn't know what to do, stay quiet so that Power Loader could tell the class.

"The Patent Register indicates that the designs are owned by Mi Enterprises, which the HPSC and Tartarus Foundation found out is a legitimately registered business. I'm told they were quite upset about that," Shunin said with a small smile.

"They expected it to be a shell company," Mei murmured.

"They did," he agreed. "Once they discovered that it wasn't, they initiated a challenge to Mi Enterprises to show due cause."

"For what?" Mei demanded indignantly. Mi Enterprises was her company. That design was hers! Sure it had been used by Izuku's dad, who turned out to be a villain, but that didn't change the fact that she'd laboured long and hard on that design. It was hers!