3 ms·

Same in my EU based company (~600 ppl, owned by a large conglomerate ), we are encouraged to come up with all kinds of BS to patent for a one time bonus of i b

• kartan 8y ago
  > [...] come up with all kinds of BS to patent [...] I guess that that is the point. I worked for a similar company. They were not interested in groundbreaking one-of-a-kind patent. They were looking for something to use as a countermeasure if another company in the same sector sues them. A new chemical process, a new antibiotic, or something of that scale can be used to create a new successful product, save lives, etc. Patents were designed to make sure that companies could profit from them, but that the knowledge was not lost just because they keep it secret. In software development, I have seen a lot of "method to send content to a remote storage using gesture-based commands" (this one is made up). When they just mean that a developer implemented a drag & drop touch functionality for the phone that sends a file to a server. A necessary implementation, but hardly an invention as any developer will come with a similar solution in minutes if presented with the problem.
• sofaofthedamned 8y ago
  Was the same with Cisco too, I can't understand how this is presented as a failure of the Japanese when it seems standard in the industry.
  • sjburt 8y ago
    I don't think the bonus was the issue so much as the career path. He left Toshiba after being "promoted" into a position where he had no subordinates and no budget.
• GordonS 8y ago
  Same here for the UK engineering company I used to work at. I believe this sort of thing is fairly common. Quite ridiculous, really.