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Blue LED Inventor Nakamura Awarded $8.1 Million
redkingca writes "The New York Times (reg required) has an article about an $8.1 million settlement in the blue-LED royalty case. Mr. Nakamura created the blue LED while working for the Nichia Corporation but never received any bonuses or royalties for his invention. A lower court had awarded 20 billion yen, nearly $200 million, and ordered Nichia to pay Mr. Nakamura last year. The settlement came after the company appealed that ruling."
Here's an interesting article from ScienceWatch (no bloodsucking reg required) which goes into more detail on the history and application of this *very* cool technology.
If my award dropped from $200 million to $8 million.
It's nice to see "the little guy" get one over on the "anything you think, we own" mentality of the big corporations. Produce a product on company time, yeah that's work for hire, but this bullshit of "you made X 3 years after you left the company, but we still own it" has to stop.
I wonder if he will now get killed with taxes he,he.. Oh wait, thats right the more money you make, the less you get taxed : )
Companies dont give two sh1ts about the employee.
Sue em. its the american way.
EVERYTHING has those damn blue LED's in the last couple years
Now give some money to this guy too, and we're square.
About 10 years ago a friend took another stance and left an employer after they patented his (very profitable) invention and licensed it, but gave him no bonus for it (the product incidental to their core competency.) He started his own consulting company and keeps all his IP now.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
A first post, on Slashdot, that is actually interesting/informative? Nah! It must be a trick...
Or is this a sign of the comming apocalypse?
Ahhhh!
So this is the guy I thank for the blue glow on my cell phone?
The green was getting lame.
Worth 8 mil to me.
http://www.watacrackaz.com
$8 mil is a drop in the bucket, this guy got screwed.
Thanks to Nakamura I have way coolest watch of all my friends. Pimpin ain't easy
Thanks for all the ass Nakamura.
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
And everything I own with one has tape covering it. I like my rooms to be dark when I turn the lights off.
Except KMart...
blue LED special in aisle twelve on dove bath soap...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
For those who would like to read a similar article without having to give out information:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5 ?nn20050112a1.htm
and here:
http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=bluele dinventorse1105540939&area=news
Pretty nice chunk of change for this guy. Although the company made quite a cunk themselves off of his work.
Having done so much with so little for so long, I now can do anything with nothing at all.
It's nice to see "the little guy" get one over on the "anything you think, we own" mentality of the big corporations. Produce a product on company time, yeah that's work for hire, but this bullshit of "you made X 3 years after you left the company, but we still own it" has to stop.
He was working for the company, on company time, at the companys direction (after he asked the company president to be assigned to do work on blue lasers), using company equipment. The guy who invented the Flourescent lightbulb for GE didn't get as much as the company initially offered this guy.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
But does he keep the IP of *his* employees?
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
The courts just left other Japanese companies open to suits over patents. The inventor was working for them and invented the LED with there equipment. Thus the patent belongs to the company. I am shocked that he actually won the first round, and then settled before the appeal went through. Being recognized is important, and the revenue he made for the company is huge, but let us be realistic here. He was doing his job and is compensated for that.
here
...Nakamura held a press conference (Yahoo Japan link) after the settlement was reached, where he said he considered the result to be a "total loss", described the Japanese legal system as "rotten", and urged researchers in technical fields to move to the US (he currently works at the University of California).
Meanwhile, the CEO of Nichia held a separate press conference where he announced that real researchers do it for the joy of technical achievement, and not for mere monetary compensation. What an asshole...
Anyone else think that those blue LEDs emit the harshest light yet? Everytime I work on a computer with those things, it pains my eyes. Try going to sleep in a room when your roommate leaves his brand new computer on overnight. I think that guy should pay me.
He is his only employee, he contracts for engineering jobs and conditions of contracts stipulate any invention in the carrying out of that contract remains his, or he doesn't accept the contract. Simple as that.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Morale could be helped a lot by sharing the wealth and kudos. It does not help if a company earns 50 million off of an employee's idea, but only gives him/her a T-shirt. What message does that send to employees? At least give the inventor a nice fat bunus. Some people and companies are just so fucking greedy that it blows the mind. Their greed is beyond rationality. If you want yet another 50-million invention to come along, then share the wealth a bit to prime the pump for the next idea. Otherwise you are just biting the hand that feeds your greed.
Table-ized A.I.
i realize it won't change the principle of things at all (none whatsoever), but he was compensated to a 20,000 yen bonus. that's less than $200. but it wasn't "nothing."
Using the IRS tax calculator the total income tax on 8 Million comes to: $2,778,720. Thats assuming it is recorded as earned income and/or dividends and that royalties are not recorded as something else. That puts him in the %34.7 tax bracket which is the highest one the USA currently has. It's also more than double what I am paying at %14.2.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
...who doesn't really get this? Sure, it's nice for a company to recognize thier employees with bonuses and such, but if I am hired by a company to invent and innovate *for that company*, then why do they owe me something (unless my contract says I will get a percentage of profits).
On one hand, it is an idea coming out of my head, but on the other hand, the company is paying a constant salary, and taking all the risks that 1) my idea won't work, 2) it costs millions to make the idea profitable, or even 3) I never have any revolutionary ideas. I could keep that IP and the resulting money, but I'd need to front the capitol to live, do the research, patent it, make it profitable, etc.
_sig_ is away
I heartily thank Mr. Nakamura. His multi-colored LED's were crucial to the 'pimping out' of my homemade PC. Now if we can only identify the equally deserving inventor of plexiglass.
an ill wind that blows no good
The problem here is that he has set the precedent that your salary is if you do nothing; if you invent something cool, you sue the company to get MORE. The result will be money to lawyers and those whose ethical standards lead them to freely sue their employer... lowering salaries generally (as companies hold back reserves to handle these situations). This will take money away from the consistent and average employee.
Please keep in mind I DO work for a large company who owns my inventions, I DO have patents in my name but assigned to my employer, and I WON'T sue my company even if they make millions from it and I don't see a dime... they compensated me for that time and effort - that's what my salary is.
This may come as a shock to you, so I hope you're sitting in a sturdy chair without a cat in your lap ... some companies rely upon invention for their growth and income. Now more than ever companies develop the technology then source out the manufacturing or license the technology to manufacturing companies.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
So when Blue LEDs are shown to cause cancer
is he going to pay his share of the legal
fees?
So does this mean that when a person at microsoft or EA writes some program or game that they are getting paid to write they can then expect royalties and bonuses? Doesn't sound right to me. If you are getting paid to do a job do it with the expectation that you will get paid what you agreed upon when you were hired. Not get mad because the company got rich off of your invention/creation.
A court awarded this guy 200 million, though he's lucky to even see 8.
They could have easily tied it up in litigation ad infinitum, since a corporation will generally outlive a human being.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
As usual, the New York Times errs in claiming that US industry is markedly better than Japanese industry. US industry has a bad habit of treating outstanding contributors rather poorely. Look at what they did to Kary Mullis creator of the most valuable patent of the 20th century. Japan has had some problems here-but at least their businesses try seriously to provide for all their employees--and Japanese upper managers rarely get the extremely high salaries common in the US. In the US, even extremely productive contributors can easily find themselves homeless in their old age-and US management is so dominated by MBA's and lawyers that management has real trouble figuring out who the real contributors are in highly technical businesses. I think this case is important because it shows Japan is moving in a positive direction-basically containing their executive compensation and providing some additional options for their star engineers to gain early retirement/recognition.
I can see the guy's point - the company he worked for has made probably many many millions of dollars off that invention. On the other hand, he signed a contract to work for them that didn't include any promises of profit-sharing on things he invented for them.
The contract I'm currently working under actually specifies that I'll get a (relatively small) bonus for any patented technology I develop. If the company made zillions of dollars off one of my ideas, I'd be surprised if they gave me a million dollars for it.
One additional complication that comes in is where do you draw the line? I'm sure more than just this one guy contributed to this invention. Should they all get millions of dollars? What about the guys in marketing and sales, where's their million-dollar bonus?
-Mark
You assume he's 1) paid a lump sum up front and 2) has no tax shelters available to him. It'll still be a large amount, though... maybe here's a new revenue model for governments: Make companies recompense their engineers properly and keeping the taxes. :)
-l
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I also don't get it why people put leds that light when you turn an apliance off. And I sure hate them too. :-(
[]'s Victor Bogado da Silva Lins
^[:wq
If you invent something DO NOT tell anyone. Resign from your job, wait a month, and THEN cash out.,
Go grab those torrents.
Like my current employer. I had to sign over my rights to *ANY* invention, not just one that was invented on company time, or related to the business.
I'm a mechanical engineer, and I work for a company that makes nuclear submarines for the Navy. Sometimes, stuff is patented, but it's gov't technology anyways.
Point is, they're so anal about protecting themselves that they want to own everything.
If I invent the next Chia pet in my basement, they'll own it. And I know a lot of companies are like this, presumably because they can get away with it.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
Guess he'll have to kill himself then.
this is not the first lawsuit of this kind. inventor of aspartane (artificial sweetner) sued ajinomoto (company known for MSG) and won ~$1.5 million before.
basically, the feeling is that providing reasonable compensation for inventors, regardless of where technically the invention patent or methods belong to, is good for the morale of workers, provides incentives and thus advances the society as a whole and increases competitiveness of corporations. finally, providing reasonable compensation is also economically viable for the company.
he was awarded $8.1 million after his contribution to the invention was deemed to be 5%, instead of the 50% in the prior ruling. the original ruling resulted in ~$600 million settlement.
the company issued a statement saying it's glad that the invention of LED was attributed to more than just one person, as indicated by the reduction of Dr. Nakamura's contribution value by the court.
The fact that the company relies on it means that it's okay to screw the inventors?
I could write a short list of products that I've created that have generated millions of dollars for companies that I've done work for, either as an employee or a contractor. But in doing the work, I was paid a guaranteed salary, and knew I would receive that whether the products were profitable or not.
There's more to making profit than just creating an invention. If the company didn't provide the supporting technology and capital to research and produce the product, then it wouldn't have been invented. Not to mention the whole marketing aspect. Sure you can be sitting on a million dollar idea, but without capital, marketing and a distribution model, it's worthless.
If he felt this product was going to be such a success and could have produced it without his company, he should have left, raised venture capital and produced it himself.
It's cases like this where I go back and rethink capitalism vs. communism vs. etc. Take Kary Mullis as another example (already mentioned in comments). His polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was patented by his employer, Cetus, who gave him a $10,000 bonus and then sold the IP for $300 million. His salary & bonus are a pittance for PCR.
Makes me wonder if this is the type of stuff Marxists think will bring about communism...and how long capitalism can survive when the creator of extremely meaningful creations gets 0.00333% of the profits.
:wq
They aren't being 'screwed'.
I work at a think-tank sort of place. Any and every type of research is fair game. The companies revenues are derived from the innovations and inventions by licensing technologies, selling products, or selling IP to other manufacturers, etc.
Agreements are in-place beforehand. Anything we develop is owned by the company. It's fair. They're paying us to go down avenues that generally will see no returns.
The reality is, my job is great. period. we do have some bonus structures in place, but the Company reaps the big benefit.. reward for the employees - a job we all love and enjoy.
source out the manufacturing or license the technology to manufacturing companies.
Actually, this is a pretty clear choice. Instead of working for IP slave-mills where the company makes billions off your ideas and doesn't even give you a raise, work straight for the manufaturers and cut out the middleman.
On the other hand, he signed a contract to work for them that didn't include any promises of profit-sharing on things he invented for them.
You are working under the assumption that every country operates under U.S. law.
In the country where I live, if somebody dreams up a patentable invention at work, during business hours, on company equipment, and patents it, then that patent belongs to the employee as an individual, not the company, and the company is prohibited by law to require otherwise in the employment contract.
I don't know what the law is like in Japan, but don't take for granted that employees are serfs all over the world. They're not.
I totally agree. and the monetary rewards the employees are seaking arnt that great. so this guy got $200 Million. if the company had given this guy $10 Million, $20Million... wich is still almost more than he could spend in a lifetime i bet he would have been tinkled pink.
The More Knowledge you have the Luckier you Get- J.R. Ewing
I don't think it is just greed here though. I honestly think these companies would make more money if they had sane compensation for inventors. It is more a control freak mentality.
BJH, Interesting. Thanks for the correction.
Here is one article for people who don't want to do the digging into how Japanese patent law works.
and Here is a white paper that suggests some changes to the law (which really don't seem to solve the ambiguity any!). This second one also talks about British law and how it differs.
Just like any talent, new and unknown talent would basically work for a salary. But, well known science talent with a track record should hire agents to negotiate a percentage of future earnings on any gross or at least work on much favorable contracts. The movie business is also a highly creative business with lots of R&D and high risk start-ups for projects. Agents works for the movie biz and right now scientist-engineers are worst off than musicans working for a record label when it comes to royalties. To compare, how much the did the actors on Titanic made compared to the profit made by their employers on their work
So, did this guy get screwed or is it a victory for him? Sounds like the company's making a killing off his invention, so he should get a cut, but why wasn't this spelled out in his contract? (heck, maybe it was, i didn't R the FA...)
Just have to say, these things are gratuitously bright. I built a new computer a few months ago, and got an Antec Sonata case, because I heard on Ars and elsewhere that it was a very solid, very quiet case. Well, I love it, except it has one of these blue LEDs on the front. It projects a bright blue smear across my living room floor, and up the opposite wall, which is about 12 feet away. I'm almost worried it's going to blind the cat! I guess I should just yank the wire to the damned thing.
And then, just recently I got a Braun electric razor...and this thing has the same LED on it, to let me know that it's seated in the charging cradle. I guess they *really* want to make sure I am aware of this datum, because I can practically see it through closed eyelids.
I could land planes by the light of the two LEDs my razor's charging station and computer case. It's pretty ridiculous.
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
And what many might be forgetting is that cheers and compensation need to trickle down from the top in many company structures. I can nearly guarantee you that the management team that produced that blue LED had its proper compensation.
Quote Nakamura : "I'm happy with the settlement. I can now buy a shark to start my next project."
Would somebody think of the poor company ! The poor little harmless company !
It's not a KID you tool get your analogies real !
some companies rely upon invention for their growth and income.
Whoa what a shocker ! Got news for you pal, -people- flesh and bone people millions of them rely on income from their work to live...guess what ? Greedy companies and financial sector don't think TWICE about robbing them of their saving and I don't see any company uprising for the welfare of human beings.
And if they do it's a feel good operation.
Call me a troll I don't give a rat ass, but you get a clue dammit get a clue !
He is his only employee
How does he manage that? It seems like only large corporations can afford to build large patent portfolios while individuals must struggle, spending too much time and money just to get individual patents granted and enforced. If he creates an invention without patenting it, what prevents others besides the party he has a contract with from using it?
It actually goes far more indepth into the nation's bureaucratic practices, but there is a blurb about researchers having to flee Japan to obtain freedom to pursue research and reap the benefits.
I recently finished reading this book and it was truly an eye-opener for understanding of how bureacracy is run in Japan, but the practice is followed very similarly for large conglomerates.
Here's a review from Amazon.com.
I'm glad things are starting to change...
so this guy got $200 Million
He only got 8.1 million. The 200 million was the initial amount, but the company appealed it.
Large corporations are not the only companies in the world, so far. Many inventions happen at a lower level than you think. Heck, I've even invented things, but I've never bothered to patent them. I just keep my mouth shut and file them away in the event I think they're worth doing so some day.
In many cases, however, innovation may not procede without a team, large capital investment and copious amount of time. Should the investors/company not be compensated, but called 'greedy bastards' in all cases?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Yeah...
like the last round of merit raises here??
management and up recieved 15-35% non management were capped at 3%
and then they wonder why the employees are pissed?
the management's raise should be capped at the highest average % he/she gave their employees.
if the asshat gives out 3% then his ass only get's 3%.
but we all know that management NEVER thinks that way.
when the game get's pirated to hell and doesn't sell well. Oh, and we don't pay you a cent until your game actually starts shipping, but once it does, we'll give you a percentage of any profits, split with the rest of the Art and Development, Management, Sales, QA, IT, MIS and Support teams, once all the rest of the development, packaging, marketting and shipping costs have been recouped.
So, your choice, really.
and some still continue to beleive this myth that capitalism somehow "rewards" creative thinking. There are only 2 classes boss and worker and the bosses will always exploit the worker in capitalism regardless of their work.
This and the child post about LEDs that turn ON when the devices is OFF are both pet peeves of mine also. The blue LED is spectacular, too much so for normal use. It's like putting a a casino billboard on your house, cool for a nanosecond, exponentially annoying each nanosecond thereafter.
I still remember the first time I encountered a DVD player that has the light ON, when the device is off, and off when it's on. I damn near blew a fuse.
In short, this is obviously a move by the makers of black electrical tape to boost sales. Hell, if 3M made little LightOffStrips (TM) (circular pieces of black tape) I would buy an endless supply.
-- I have fans? Wow.
So what about the guy that invented the light blue, dark blue, sky blue and baby blue LED's? DO they get royalties as well?
... it's as if you create an interesting pattern while knitting, everyone picks up on it and uses the exact same pattern, and now you get royalties on everyone using your pattern? C'mon.
This is quite bizzare
Brooklyn.
My dad worked for decades for one of the largest corporations in the world, as an engineer and developed many things which were patented by the company. He got to hang the patent on the office wall, but got little if any compensation for it..
It's still that way in most American corporations from what I can see. At my job, the management is constantly talking about how we need to put out more patents, and how important intellectual property is. To give us incentive, we get a whopping $100 for filing a patent, and an enormous $1000 if the patent is accepted.
Yeah, I guess it's better than nothing, but that's really not much incentive to work extra-hard, considering the extra time and effort needed to develop and write up the patent. If your patent is some obscure thing that no one cares about, the $1000 might be worth it to you. But if your idea makes the company hundreds of millions in profit, $1k is a really cheap reward.
As a result, I never think about patenting anything I think of, or really bother trying to come up with anything that groundbreaking. If anything I'm working on is patentable (possible, but not likely), I'm not going expend the extra effort needed to see if it's patentable. If I get any truly great ideas, I'm just going to sit on them and wait until I'm working freelance before I do anything with them.
It's funny how American companies give a lot of lip service these days to "innovation", but they're not willing to properly reward any of their employees for actually coming up with these innovations. A smarter society could easily outcompete us economically if they figured out how to reward people better for their efforts.
Well, I'm not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with you. Personally, I'd side with the scientist/engineer on instinct.
BUT...
If I invented something like this and my employer handed me $10 million (or more), I might not stick around.
Even if I wanted to continue doing research...with $10 million I can do my research on my own terms...and keep the riches from any future inventions to myself. Of course, for some types of research $10 million may not actually be enough to do your own research. So maybe that is some incentive to stay.
But anyway...if a business makes its employees financially independent (whether or not this is the right thing to do), they risk losing them.
It is not true that Nakamura **INVENTED** blue LED. It was indeed a self-taught Soviet engineer Oleg Losev who first *discovered* the blue LED and correctly explained the phenomenon, in 1920s. Almost nobody heard about him in the West is because of he was happened to be born in Soviet Union.
He also constructed the first completely solid-state radio functioned up to 5MHZ back then. Does anybody still remember what year was transistor invented??
Dr Nakamura is in fact the first person invented the way to manufacture blue LED. UCSB rocks!!!
Ref: "Subhistories of the Light-Emitting Diode", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, July 1976, pp. 675-99
H.J. Round (1907) is credited, somewhat correctly with the invention of the blue-green LED. See this
I think real blue LEDs came about in the '60s.
Nakamura's great contribution was to use lateral overgrowth to produce the first practical blue laser. In engineering, people get more credit for practicality than first display of a principle.
Many inventions happen at a lower level than you think... I just keep my mouth shut and file them away in the event I think they're worth doing so some day.
I'm under the impression that acquiring a patent is a lengthy and costly process for the individual especially if they aren't familiar with the legal processes for doing so, even when they consult patent attorneys and such. If you finally decided to pursue a bunch of inventions you had filed away, how could you avoid this? Are there firms that help individuals create their own patent portfolios with the speed and efficiency that large corporations obtain them, without preoccupying the inventor with all the legal procedures?
Actually they do sell patterns on a per copy basis. And yes, you aren't allowed to copy them and share with your friends, because they are works of art and protected under copyright law.
You can obtain a patent for just the filing costs by writing it yourself -- the USPTO will even help you write it. It probably won't be as broad as a patent you get by having an experienced practitioner draft it for you, but you'll have a patent.
Sure, getting a patent may cost $20,000 -- $30,000 if you are talking about some exotic biotech invention, and you have a top law firm do the patent for you -- but there are a lot of solo patent attorneys (and patent agents) who can do most types of patents for way less money. It may still cost a couple of grand for an agent to get you a patent on a relatively non-complex invention, but that's well within the range of many solo and small inventors.
Further, if you have a good, solid patent, there are a number of law firms that will take plaintiff-side patent infringement cases on contingency, so you don't even necessarily have to have big bucks to enforce your patent.
Now, sometimes you get what you pay for -- but big-$$$ law firms sometimes screw up and produce a bad patent, and oftentimes solo practitioners can do an excellent job for a lot less cost (a lot of solos are former big-firm practitioners who got tired of sharing the wealth).
It may seem like patents are only for the big guys, but that is not really true.
"That's not even wrong..." -- Wolfgang Pauli
I think a patent will cost you about $20K, if you hire patent attorneys, and take 3-5 years. It's not like you just mail off an application and you have a patent, especially if you might be stepping on some companies toes.
Every penny given as a bonus to some really smart guy who comes up with a great invention = a penny not given as a dividend to some fat fuck with a stock portfolio. Welcome to modern business.
(I generalise for comedic effect...)
You must think in Russian.
>Even if I wanted to continue doing research...with $10 million I can do my research on my own terms...
Part of what's great about working at a leading research lab or university is that you work with interesting, intellegent people. Talking to people about what you're working on and what they're working on can spark useful ideas. Having people around to say "look, here's what I'm doing, isn't it cool?" is incredibly valuable for feedback and morale.
I often work largely on my own. However, it doesn't mean that that sort of interaction isn't valuable to me, or to many other researchers.
Lea
$20K is on the high side for, say, and electrical or software patent, probably mid-range for biotech. Of course, if you end up with a lot of back-and-forth prosecution, that jacks the costs up.
You can't just send in an application and get a patent -- but it's pretty close. If you send in an application and ask the examiner to write the claims for you (which you can do if you are prosecuting an application yourself, and you are not a registered agent or attorney), and the subject matter is otherwise patentable (proper matter, not anticipated or obvious), then you are all but guaranteed a patent. The only office action you'll need to respond to is an ammendment to add the examiner's claims into your application.
And that sort of patent would only cost filing fees. May not be worth much in litigation, but you'll have a patent...
"That's not even wrong..." -- Wolfgang Pauli
>work straight for the manufaturers and cut out the middleman.
There's a slight problem with that: the manufactuers are often working on thin margins and don't want to assume the risk. Just as an example, take theoreticians. Their research has led to much more efficient ways to construct circuits, perform tasks, and led to a better understanding of what is and is not possible and efficient. No one really wants to pay them, though many people benefit from their work. Cryptographers are often in the same bind: they make interesting new things possible, and find out about fundamental insecurities in old things. Just because some company would probably benefit from their work, it doesn't mean they want to pay them for it.
Lea
Until American society learns to value the act of technical innovation by rewarding it financially and with status, rather than rewarding those already in "the status club" for just breathing and showing up, it doesn't deserve to get the benefit of any more technical innovation.
After all, you get what you pay for. If what you reward is only the marketroids, suits, and lawyers, and treat everyone else like a drone, then you should only expect drone levels of technical innovation.
Part of the problem is that no one seems to know how to measure the effect of technical innovation against company performance. And not knowing how to measure it, it is easy to say there is no way to reward it. (Software patents probably came out initially in order to address this issue, but grifters and toadies have hijacked the process.)
In any case, I suspect the biggest part of the problem is the arrogance of those in "the status club". No one else's ideas can be acknowledged as having real value, because if they did, then "the status club" would not be able to reward or justify themselves as well. Why reward people for their hard work when it is just your due for letting them be employed in your company?
Next stop, Welcome to Feudal States of America.
Technoserfs form a line to the left...
I didn't RTFA, but I thought all those LED poisoning lawsuits would stop when they changed paint to Latex.
Evan Brown is living proof
http://www.unixguru.com/
He developed this on the cheap. He was very under funded compared to the other research efforts which ultimately were esentially failed. His inventions are a testiment far more to his personal perserverence and considerable insight rather than the market's ability to concentrate capital.
He took a nothing little mining company and gave them a suite of technologies that lauched them center stage in an industry with far better margins. No one in that company over the last couple of decades contributed as much to their current and future success as he did. The shareholders should be lining up to suck his dick and offering their virgin daughters for his consideration.
Whoa dude, nice fantasy. Whatever that stuff is you are taking, would you send me some?
The cool thing about Blue LED's, is that I have a clip on flash light with just one LED, and when you hold it under your fingers in a dark room, you can see blood vessels and arteries.....
:-D
Cool......
Which your typical MBA program is designed to produce.
"OH SHIT, THERE'S A HORSE IN THE HOSPITAL!"
Well, at least it would be a conversation piece.
"OH SHIT, THERE'S A HORSE IN THE HOSPITAL!"
A dollar to a rich man is an addition to his collection. A dollar to a poor man is 1/3 of the way to buying lunch. Most of us live somewhere in the middle. I still think a flat tax would be fine as long as there were zero exceptions, but I understand the logic behind increasing rates with income.
If I invented something like this and my employer handed me $10 million (or more), I might not stick around.
I was thinking more like a $200,000 bonus, window office, and a better parking spot. It does not always take huge amounts of money to make employers feel better.
Table-ized A.I.
to make employers feel better.
Correction, I meant "employees". Sorry bout dat. Also I meant a one-time bonus, but there could be a general raise of say 15% also.
Table-ized A.I.
I am not an expert in law, but the whole darned reason a corporation pays a scientist his SALARY is so that they get the rights to his INVENTIONS.
This is in the contract that we all sign. Typical corporations usually pay a little bonus for any patent accepted, and obviously promotions are related to the successful application of your research.
It sounds like this court is literally throwing the contract out the window. So much for law.
MBA programs haven't helped the problem. I tend to think that the domination of legislatures by attorneys is where the problem started. The US used to have leaders like Jefferson and Franklin. I suspect their modern day equivalents are greatly alienated from the present government and business establishment.
It's not specificly my job to invent patents. When I have an idea I keep it secret.
At the telecom company I worked for we were promised the same $100 deal for filing and $1000 if it because a full fledged patent. Two others and myself went together and created a patentable idea and got nothing for it. In the end, the company got a nice patent which they use to sue other companies to make millions.
You got nothing? Not even the $1100 they promised? You should be able to sue them for that; they violated their own policy. If you can prove they did this willfully, you get triple punitive damages. I'd call a lawyer if I were you.
Every penny given as a bonus to some really smart guy who comes up with a great invention = a penny not given as a dividend to some fat fuck with a stock portfolio. Welcome to modern business.
I disagree with that weighting. Example:
Without incentive:
Profit from 1st invention: 20m
Total Profits: 20m
With incentive:
Profit from 1st invention: 20m
Costs of reward to emp: -1m
Profit from 2nd invention: 20m
Costs of reward to emp: -1m
Total Profits: 38m
Employees will not be very motivated to invent for a company if there is no real incentive. Capitalism requires rewards to work "right", remember?
Table-ized A.I.
the lender owns your work ?
BTW, "capitol" is the city where the seat of government sits, like Washington, DC. "Capital" is money used for investment.
Actually, with the usage you quoted, both are "capital" . The parent is still wrong though, as "capitol" is the building (as opposed to the city).
I remember seeing a blue LED, with my own two eyes, in the early 1970s. It was used as a light source to calibrate and stabilise a photomultiplier & amplifier chain used to watch a sodium iodide scintillator crystal.
All I remember about it was that it came from a scientific equipment supplier in the USA and cost a Kings Ransom, many hundreds of Dollari for a single unit. The prof. in question appeared to think that we technicians should bow down and worship this Wonderful Product of Science.
So, how come this particular re-discoveror recons he's worth Umpteen Millions and the court actually gives him $8,200,000?
$100? well, I got a dollar to hang on my wall for a patent filing. I havn't received the dollar yet but it better come nicely framed in a display case.
the basis of science everywhere, including Japan (where I am moving in a few months, actually). Generally, scientists working for a corporation do receive some type of bonus or royalty for a patent. This is all contractal, and generally minor. The basic essence of the relationship is the company's money in return for our ideas.
Furthermore, if they said they would pay you for them, and they didn't, you may actually own the patent...
Actually they do sell patterns on a per copy basis. And yes, you aren't allowed to copy them and share with your friends, because they are works of art and protected under copyright law.
Same thing goes with the clipart type patterns that is loaded into automatic embroidery sewing machines. My mom once paid $125 for a PCMCIA card that was pre-loaded with a dozen or so patterns such as flowers, animals, and other cutesy stuff for her embroidery machine. IIRC, the legalese for the patterns was that they were for personal use only, that she couldn't mass produce anything (say, shirts) with the designs on them and sell them for profit. On the technical side, the card couldn't be read by a computer with a PCMCIA slot because the data was in a proprietary, perhaps encrypted format, and it would work with only one brand of embroidery machine. And computer software to create your own custom clipart for embroidery machines is outrageously expensive, the program for her machine rivaled the cost of an enterprise edition of high-end CAD software.
I think a patent will cost you about $20K, if you hire patent attorneys, and take 3-5 years.
Then how is it that large corporations seem to be able to patent things almost immediately? I know that deeper pockets allow them to get things done faster on their side, but how do they get it through the patent office so quickly?
Unless:-
1/ The bonuses are a part of the agreed apon work conditions sorted out before one assumed that position with that employer.
2/ The employer elected to give a bonus for whatever reason that's in excess of the agreed apon entitlements of the job.
I remember when a construction firm sold out at a real good price & the former owner gave every employee a million dollars each, now that's great, but such bonuses, whether based on performance or not, should not be compulsary unless they're a part of the employees agreed apon entitlements.
IMAO this bloke should not have got that bonus unless such incentive based rewards were apart of his agreed apon entitlements, unless the employer simply wanted to give him such a large bonus, which they plainly did not.
BTW can someone please explain how blue LEDs are so bloody useful? I assume they can't do anything a yellow, orange or green LED can? Actually blue LEDs are more of a pain, they're so bloody bright one useally ends up having to stick a couple of stick-it notes across the front of what ever box of magic tricks has one on the front.
Untill I stuck down a bit of paper with sticky tape on the one on my computer speakers, the only way I could sleep at night with the computer/speakers on was by drinking half a dozen oversized cans of generic Bourbon 'n coke premixes or buy having a shot of smack.
though I believe most European countries have similar laws.
Immigration is easy as pie if you're European (read: citizen of the EU), otherwise about as tough as getting from, say, Mexico to the US.
The specific Swedish law is named 1949:345. It says that employees have the same right to inventions as any other inventor would have, unless specific conditions below are met (par. 2), and then lists a few exceptions, notably that if you're hired to do patentable research, then that research belongs to the employer. However:
6 par. Inträder arbetsgivare, enligt denna lag eller eljest, helt eller delvis såsom arbetstagarens rättsinnehavare med avseende å en av denne gjord uppfinning, skall arbetstagaren vara berättigad till skälig ersättning; och skall vad nu sagts gälla ändå att annat må hava avtalats före uppfinningens tillkomst.
(If an employer assumes partial or exclusive rights to an invention, in the role of the inventor's employer, by this law or otherwise, then that employer is entitled to reasonable compensation, and this is valid even if other agreements may have been reached before the time of invention.)
Note that the compensation mentioned here is over and above the rate of hire, and is based on the value of the patent/invention. And again, this only applies in a few special cases, such as if you're hired to research patentable blue LEDs and given specific angles of attack. Otherwise, the employee owns the patent.