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"Me with a patent and 25 years of innovation in key major products like the playstation network?" You might be an excellent engineer, but this is a terrible pi

by Peaker 12y ago

"Me with a patent and 25 years of innovation in key major products like the playstation network?" You might be an excellent engineer, but this is a terrible pitch for yourself. A software patent is meaningless to most software developers. Most software patents are nonsense. Many of us are listed as inventors on plenty of silly patents, and that isn't very impressive. To me, the mention of a patent in this manner is a negative signal. 25 years of experience is nice, but just mentioning that is hard to differentiate from the case of 25 times 1 year of experience. Just mentioning that work was done on something like the PlayStation network is in itself not very impressive: need to spice it up with some actual details.

Zombieball 12y ago
Not trying to put down the parent comment by MCRed, but my experience is very much in line with what you say and in fact getting a patent is even easier if you work at large company (such as Sony). Those technical writers in the patent divisions of orgs are amazing at their job: 1) Submit a thin, whacky idea, with loose documentation to the patent department. 2) Hold a 1 hour phone call with technical writers. 3) Two weeks later you get emailed a 10 page patent application of your idea complete with diagrams asking you to review it.
throwawaykf05 12y ago
>A software patent is meaningless to most software developers. This might seem so if you don't leave the HN bubble (which, along with tech media as a whole, has no idea how patents really work yet and so harbor notions like "most software patents are nonsense"). But really it's impossible to generalize a statement like this to any significant portion of our industry. Right here grandparent is an engineer who obviously doesn't agree. There's another comment just below that actually thinks one patent in 25 years is low. The overwhelming majority of software engineers I personally know are proud of their patents. Anytime somebody posts a new patent to their LinkedIn profile, I see nothing but a cascade of congratulatory comments. Not to say that all the patents out there are awesome, but the notions most people here have about them are far from commonplace.
- Peaker 12y ago
  I know how patents work and I'm listed as inventor on some. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html Is the reason why I claim most software patents are nonsense.
  - throwawaykf05 12y ago
    I am also listed on some. But I have actually prosecuted a couple, and I find most tech communities to be entirely clueless about patents. Posting that Spolsky article shows that no, you don't really understand how patents work. Spolsky has some rudimentary understanding, and I really appreciate what askpatents is trying to do, but he misunderstood that patent as well. When that article was posted on HN the top comment pointed out that the patent application was talking about something else. Indeed, following up on the application, I see that it has been granted with only slightly narrower claims: https://www.google.com/patents/US8933971 https://www.google.com/patents/US8933971 You may think you know what your patents cover, but have you actually read the claims? If you do, you'll find the claims are about as narrow as the invention is trivial, so narrow that nothing will likely infringe it. If that's what you meant by "nonsense", then I'd agree. But the fact remains that the vast, vast majority of programmers never do anything worth filing even those kinds of patents.
    - Peaker 12y ago
      I know what the patents filed on my behalf entail. I know the claims. I collaborated on their "invention". The fact it was granted a patent is not very note-worthy. It is not representative of anything useful. It doesn't represent deep thought, a lot of research, or anything of extraordinary value. It's a stupid game corporate has to play.
      - throwawaykf05 12y ago
        >The fact it was granted a patent is not very note-worthy. It is not representative of anything useful. It doesn't represent deep thought, a lot of research, or anything of extraordinary value. 1. Having read a ton of patents across multiple fields, that could be said of most patents ever (not just software patents). Most patents come out of engineering work, not high-level R&D. 2. That is still a huge step above what most engineers do their whole careers. Think of the average software developer - what percentage do anything approaching "real" engineering as opposed to churning out CRUD apps and web UIs dictated by business needs?

by Peaker 12y ago

Zombieball 12y ago

Not trying to put down the parent comment by MCRed, but my experience is very much in line with what you say and in fact getting a patent is even easier if you work at large company (such as Sony). Those technical writers in the patent divisions of orgs are amazing at their job: 1) Submit a thin, whacky idea, with loose documentation to the patent department. 2) Hold a 1 hour phone call with technical writers. 3) Two weeks later you get emailed a 10 page patent application of your idea complete with diagrams asking you to review it.

throwawaykf05 12y ago

>A software patent is meaningless to most software developers. This might seem so if you don't leave the HN bubble (which, along with tech media as a whole, has no idea how patents really work yet and so harbor notions like "most software patents are nonsense"). But really it's impossible to generalize a statement like this to any significant portion of our industry. Right here grandparent is an engineer who obviously doesn't agree. There's another comment just below that actually thinks one patent in 25 years is low. The overwhelming majority of software engineers I personally know are proud of their patents. Anytime somebody posts a new patent to their LinkedIn profile, I see nothing but a cascade of congratulatory comments. Not to say that all the patents out there are awesome, but the notions most people here have about them are far from commonplace.

Peaker 12y ago
I know how patents work and I'm listed as inventor on some. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html Is the reason why I claim most software patents are nonsense.
- throwawaykf05 12y ago
  I am also listed on some. But I have actually prosecuted a couple, and I find most tech communities to be entirely clueless about patents. Posting that Spolsky article shows that no, you don't really understand how patents work. Spolsky has some rudimentary understanding, and I really appreciate what askpatents is trying to do, but he misunderstood that patent as well. When that article was posted on HN the top comment pointed out that the patent application was talking about something else. Indeed, following up on the application, I see that it has been granted with only slightly narrower claims: https://www.google.com/patents/US8933971 https://www.google.com/patents/US8933971 You may think you know what your patents cover, but have you actually read the claims? If you do, you'll find the claims are about as narrow as the invention is trivial, so narrow that nothing will likely infringe it. If that's what you meant by "nonsense", then I'd agree. But the fact remains that the vast, vast majority of programmers never do anything worth filing even those kinds of patents.
  - Peaker 12y ago
    I know what the patents filed on my behalf entail. I know the claims. I collaborated on their "invention". The fact it was granted a patent is not very note-worthy. It is not representative of anything useful. It doesn't represent deep thought, a lot of research, or anything of extraordinary value. It's a stupid game corporate has to play.
    - throwawaykf05 12y ago
      >The fact it was granted a patent is not very note-worthy. It is not representative of anything useful. It doesn't represent deep thought, a lot of research, or anything of extraordinary value. 1. Having read a ton of patents across multiple fields, that could be said of most patents ever (not just software patents). Most patents come out of engineering work, not high-level R&D. 2. That is still a huge step above what most engineers do their whole careers. Think of the average software developer - what percentage do anything approaching "real" engineering as opposed to churning out CRUD apps and web UIs dictated by business needs?