IBM Abandons More Outrage-Provoking Offshoring Patent Requests

from the patent-review-by-pr dept

Wed, Apr 8th 2009 3:57pm — Mike Masnick

theodp writes "As we've seen before, sometimes all it takes is a little bad PR to get IBM to ditch a patent. More recently, Big Blue took a break from its stealth U.S. layoffs to withdraw a patent application for offshoring jobs while maximizing government tax breaks, saying it was 'filed in error'. And before bad PR lightning could strike thrice, IBM preemptively abandoned another patent application last Friday, this one for Selecting Shared Service Centers in another country ('e.g., India') and staffing them with less-productive-but-cheaper IT workers. Guess this one was 'filed in error' too!"

Filed Under: outsourcing, patents, publicity
Companies: ibm

7 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 8 Apr 2009 @ 4:02pm

The real outrage is that such things are even patentable.
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The infamous Joe, 8 Apr 2009 @ 4:18pm

Re:
You can apply for a patent in anything-- so there is very little 'outrage' at the fact that they applied. (A lot of head shaking, but no outrage)

The real outrage would have occured if it had been granted, and I can't manage to convince myself it wouldn't have been.
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PO Drone, 8 Apr 2009 @ 4:44pm

NOT GRANTED??? NOT GRANTED???
And me miss out on my production bonus??? WTF are you talking about??

I've got my rubber stamp, see? And this big pile of applications? Here's how it works...

stampstampstampstampstampstampstampstampstampstampstampstamp
stampstampstampstampstamps tampstampstampstampstampstampstamp!!

And one to grow on...

stamp!

Can't stand in the way of progress. And that's $25 on my monthly bonus.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Apr 2009 @ 5:29pm

Re: Re:
Based on the claims, Bilski would have killed it. A better question would be whether IBM would have pursued the application had Bilski not been decided.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Apr 2009 @ 5:30pm

Re:
There should be no outrage. These things are not patentable, at least in the United States, thanks to Bilski.
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Big Al, 8 Apr 2009 @ 6:18pm

Another way of looking at it
Perhaps, if this patent had been granted, IBM could have charged such huge licensing fees that it would have made it uneconomical for other companies to outsource, thus stemming the tide of jobs to India and other parts of Asia...
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Apr 2009 @ 6:53pm

Re: Another way of looking at it
If you ignore IBM
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