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Ask HN: What's are the terms of your company's patent incentive program?
Does your company have a patent incentive program? Generally, what are the terms? What size is your company? How much effort does the inventor spend in crafting the application?
- tptacek 13y agoWe don't have one, but in previous companies (2, to be exact) the terms have effectively been: a pittance reward ($1000-$5000) plus an unlimited obligation to defend the patent in the future, long after one has left the company. That latter part actually came up for me once; I was offered compensation for significant time spent providing expert support for a patent cross-licensing dispute, long after I'd left the company, but it was at a fiat rate far below my actual market value at the time.
- relaunched 13y agoWas the rate agreed upon on the front-end, in the invention assignment agreement or later? I haven't seen that term before, but if they had to pay for your time at a decent rate, I'd be okay with it. However, it sounds like the rate wasn't enough to make it worthwhile.
- tptacek 13y agoGenerally, patent program or not, employees at companies with real employment contracts (ie, any BigCo) don't really have the power to hold their employers hostage for terms for patent assignment, so this is a distinction without a difference for me. But, "before assignment" is the answer. You should not be OK with being legally obligated to do work for your former employers on their schedule.