IBM is so funny. There are large incentives to get patents there as an employee. Prior to when I left and went to another company, there were even expectation

IBM is so funny. There are large incentives to get patents there as an employee. Prior to when I left and went to another company, there were even expectations that senior level engineers would regularly generate patents and patentable work as part of their normal work. I remember one funny year when they pushed the patent expectation down to the lower banded employees (of which I was one at the time). We all dutifully submitted (internally) a number of patent "inventions" to meet the requirement and get the magic bonus $$ if you actually got one awarded. At the time, it didn't feel like an honest effort to generate innovation, but rather just another out-of-normal-process to heap on employees who were mostly trying not to get laid off.