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IBM Ditches Outsourcing Patent

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the whoops-our-bad dept.

Xenographic writes "IBM has dropped their controversial outsourcing patent, both withdrawing the application and placing it into the public domain. Apparently, it was filed eight months before they implemented more stringent reviews of their patent applications so as to avoid filing for obvious patents, especially business method patents. The notice also says that they would like to thank the community for bringing it to their attention."

7 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Speechless by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why does everyone act like it's perfectly normal for companies to act in a completely anti-social manner? Because it is? It's been drilled into our heads since highschool that the point of business is to make money by any means necessary, and business hasn't done anything to counter that impression.

    I think most people wouldn't accept that from their neighbours and that anti-social actions by companies is hurting our world more than ever. Most people accept a lot of shit from big companies that they wouldn't accept from another person.

    The future is not in the type of market fundamentalism that we see around us so much. The future is in every part of our society acting somewhat responsibly. Then the future is fucked. Might as well fellate a shotgun now. Modern society is incompatible with personal responsibility.

    IBM is further along that curve than most companies. Talk about setting your low bars...

  2. Re:Speechless by rucs_hack · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have a theory, possibly wrong.

    They realised it was a patentable thing, but didn't want it. So they filed, got it, and put the patent in the public domain, thus protecting themselves from any problems that might emerge from such a patent being granted to a patent troll.

  3. Re:Actually... by Wolfbone · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Sure - it's not perfect, ..."

    It was even less 'evil' once:

    http://web.archive.org/web/20060426151241/http://www.siam.org/siamnews/mtc/mtc593.htm
  4. Re:Actually... by MMC+Monster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I always wonder about things like this.

    For a multinational corporation as big as IBM, is it "evil" for them to outsource jobs to India, China, etc? What if they outsourced jobs to the U.S. Would that be considered evil as well?

    By moving jobs to where the labor is cheaper, they are proping up those economies. The more money the people have in poorer nations, the more companies will flourish there, providing more customers for services & products produced by IBM.

    It's a long-term plan for a company that plans to be around decades from now. Should it be labeled evil?

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    Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
  5. Thanks IBM, you did the right thing by Cannelloni · · Score: 2, Interesting

    IBM used to be the Great Stan of Hardware and MS the Little Stan of Software, at least in many Mac users' eyes, but for many years now, IBM seems to have shifted over and joined the good guys (Apple is officially a GOOD company, right...?) Mainly, most likely, because it is good business practice, and IBM is the number one money machine, so good publicity = more respect = more money in the bank. Well in this case, you've earned it. Hats off to you, old IBM. I have always had the greatest respect for Big Blue, even during the Dark Ages in the 1990. It IS a rather austere but serious company.

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    Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
  6. Outsourcing bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I wish IBM has kept this patent, and sat on it, or at least not allowed others use of it.

    Outsourcing = layoffs.

    Anything making it harder to layoff American workers is good.

    This is not a slam on other countries, but to see people in my country getting kicked out of work left and right is disheartening.

  7. Re:Actually... by raddan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's hard, and one could argue, irrational, not to be concerned about one's own financial well-being. You don't hear many people saying, "I lost my job, but by golly, free trade will work it all out in the end!"

    So while it may be true that free trade is better for the world, in aggregate, it does not change the fact that it is worse for many individuals. Considering that the individual is almost always powerless in the employer-employee relationship, especially in the case of a multinational corporation, I find it hard to have sympathy for the corporation. I won't even get into comparing the expense accounts of the highest-paid employees to the wages of the lowest-paid.