Geek House Call Services: Expensive, Wrong And Could Be Stealing Your Data

IBM Drops Outsourcing Patent, After Outsourcing Patent Review To Slashdot

from the that's-how-it-works,-you-see dept

Fri, Oct 5th 2007 12:42pm — Mike Masnick

IBM consistently is one of the more aggressive companies in applying for patents (and, at times, enforcing those patents). However, in the last few years, the company has started realizing just how much patents can harm innovation -- and the company has been trying to work on ways to improve patent quality (though, it still gets involved in some questionable patent lawsuits). Over the weekend, however, the company got quite a bit of attention after Slashdot posted about a recent IBM patent application that appeared to cover figuring out how to best offshore workers. It was the type of thing that sounded so absurd that lots of other sites and the press picked up on it... leading IBM to apologize withdraw the patent application, put the "process" into the public domain and saying that with its new processes, it wouldn't have applied for that patent at all. This is a nice surprise, as you could see most companies simply trying to defend whatever ridiculous patent they had applied for.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: patents
Companies: ibm

18 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased), 5 Oct 2007 @ 2:05pm

Makes sense
1. Patent outsourcing
2. Competitors can't outsource
3. Competitors must hire expensive domestic labor
4. Your product prices are much cheaper
5. Crush competition
6. Market domination
7. Take over the world
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
daruku, 5 Oct 2007 @ 4:41pm

Makes sense 2
1. Patent outsourcing
2. ???
3. Profit
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Jeff, 5 Oct 2007 @ 9:14pm

i like it.
if i can get my laptops cheaper than i will be happy. but i don't want to see to many jobs go over there. my dad dose work for them. and half his clients are India.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Boogaloo Flu, 6 Oct 2007 @ 5:20pm
  
  Re: i like it.
  Dood, liek cann ewe spel? Loox liek yu knead a spel-chekr
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2007 @ 7:50pm

Sure why not. You put together a way to sort out the best way to make a profit ? Isn't that what business does ? And try to patent the software that does it to ? hummmmmm. Sounds all very reasonable to me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Brian, 8 Oct 2007 @ 8:38am

OK, but what about the GUI-checkbox patent?
Another silly patent app people need to watch out for is the one on GUI checkboxes...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
sunil, 8 Oct 2007 @ 9:19pm

Patent Outsourcing Job
Contact me for any kind of Patent related work - novelty assessment, technology trend assessment etc. @ patents4all@yahoo.com at very competitive rates.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Don O'Neill, 1 Jan 2008 @ 6:41am

Outsourcing Software Projects
Understanding why companies engage in outsourcing, managing the risks inherent in outsourcing software projects, identifying the essential elements of global outsourcing maturity, and reasoning about the cost return ratio of typical outsourcing scenarios are all topics of current research.

What should a Global Enterprise (GE) look for in an offshore outsourcing partner? Access to the world's high skilled, low cost software providers may be barred to the risk adverse enterprise unless it takes the Inside Track to Offshore Outsourcing featuring the Trusted Pipe. USPTO patent and trademark applications submitted.

The control point nodes (GECP, OVCP) of the Trusted Pipe are populated with Intelligent Middlemen who compose, interpret, and exchange essential multi-dimensional messages associated with management, engineering, business, legal, and cultural packets in order to facilitate and ensure a smooth operation.

The first-ever patent application teaching the best possible method for offshore outsourcing was filed nearly four years ago. Learn about the inside track to offshore outsourcing using a trusted pipe and intelligent middlemen at http://www.trustedpipe.com

Don O’Neill
Independent Consultant
ONeillDon@aol.com
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
na, 25 Jan 2008 @ 4:30pm

Think!
IBM's key concept is Think. IT means to think of good ways to do inavation.. not screw American workers out of their jobs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Offshore Outsourcing, 5 May 2008 @ 3:36am

We can absolutely trust offshore outsourcing as a winning offer, which has widened its horizon to ITO, BPO, Software R&D and KPO. No doubt offshore outsourcing is a win-win game! We advise everyone related to IT field to bump into the magnetizing world of offshore outsourcing to maximize the gains.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Maluz Manalo, 24 Jul 2008 @ 10:54pm

NMG IT Outsourcing Philippines
NMG I.T. Outsourcing Philippines is a product and software development outsourcing company that aims to deliver high quality and cost
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Philippine outsourcing, 12 Jan 2009 @ 9:14pm

Philippine outsourcing
heard rumours that dell plans to sell of dell international services to outsourcers. not sure if its true.. -Philippine outsourcing
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
sklepy internetowe, 11 Feb 2009 @ 9:10am

Software Projects
The control point nodes (GECP, OVCP) of the Trusted Pipe are populated with Intelligent Middlemen who compose, interpret, and exchange essential multi-dimensional messages associated with management, engineering, business, legal, and cultural packets in order to facilitate and ensure a smooth operation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
amber shop, 15 Apr 2009 @ 6:42am

nice article!!!!
The control point nodes (GECP, OVCP) of the Trusted Pipe are populated with Intelligent Middlemen who compose, interpret, and exchange essential multi-dimensional messages associated with management, engineering, business, legal, and cultural packets in order to facilitate and ensure a smooth operation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Online florist, 8 Jan 2010 @ 1:47am

makes sense?
Good point... I've been looking for IBM law-related articles and here I've found! Thanks dude!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
fotowoltaika, 1 Aug 2010 @ 8:05am

for me is all right!
Why this is so confusing? We all know that outsourcing is the best way to maximize gains and win the race.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
strony internetowe wrocław, 10 Oct 2010 @ 1:45pm

good!
Great share and good news. Thanks for your effort. BTW: your site works superb. :)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Serena Carli, 6 Mar 2014 @ 7:37pm

Outsourcing to the Philippines
More and more people are securing their innovations through Patent. This is to ensure that the invention is named after him/her. That's a good thing, to share your inventions while protecting your rights as the registered owner. Thanks for sharing this article.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]