Designing a Patent-Incentive Program?

SoulMaster writes "The company I work for (we are a one-year-old start-up) has recently started filing patents to protect some of its intellectual property. At the onset of the patent process, one of the executives drafted a very basic Patent Incentive Program (PIP) which is now under full review to ensure that it is both accurate and fair. The basics of our original PIP are that inventors receive (or co-inventors share): $500 for each provisional filing, $1500 for an actual patent filing (with full claim-sets defined), and $5000 for any patent that is granted by the USPTO. While the current program seems fair to our staff, we have been unable to find anything to compare it to. Moreover, the revamp of the program is likely to grant an equity stake in the company (via an Options grant) rather than cash payouts. I've scoured Google for information, but because internally documented PIPs aren't generally public knowledge, the results are limited. Thus, I have decided to ask Slashdot users: How does the company you work for handle Patent incentives? Do they have them at all? Are they cash or equity based?"

Comments

I have a very effective program at my company...

[wronskyMan]

but I patented the idea so it looks like you're out of luck!

Re:I have a very effective program at my company..

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh yeah? I got a patent for dehydrated ice. Gotta sneak the margaritas aboard the cruise ship somehow.

Ummm....

[martinQblank]

Why does asking this question on /. seem a lot like walking into a biker bar wearing a feather boa and asking for a virgin Tom Collins?

Son, you might be in the wrong bar...

Re:Stanford's patent policy.

[arotenbe]

It would be nice if there was a "-1, irrelevant" downmoderation possible for responses like this.

It would be nice if there was a "-1, recursive" downmoderation possible for responses like this.