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Wonder if part of it has to do with incentive structures for patents? My understanding is that at Google, if you have <= K (2? 3?) inventors on a patent, they e
by QuercusMax 10y ago
Wonder if part of it has to do with incentive structures for patents? My understanding is that at Google, if you have <= K (2? 3?) inventors on a patent, they each get $X,000, and more than K, $X*2,000 is split N ways. (I have not received any patent bonuses personally, so this is all second- and third-hand.) This means that it pays to keep the number of inventors on a patent small.
If Apple has a different structure, this may account for the differences.
- madeofpalk 10y agoHow interesting, that the company gives out bonuses for patents. I would not be surprised if Apple doesn't do this, much like how their retail staff don't get paid in commission.
- microtherion 10y agoApple does give bonuses for patents, but they are of a mostly symbolic size.
- krzyk 10y agoI know at least two more companies that give bonuses for patents: IBM and Motorola (before being bought by Google).
- QuickThrow22 10y agoMy employer pays a decent bonus (> the $4000 cited for Google earlier) and we have a pretty small patent portfolio - I always imagined it was pretty typical for tech companies to but maybe that's not the case?
- haldean 10y agoThis is exactly right, and the X was 4 in 2014. Not sure if it's changed since I left.