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!"

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: outsourcing, patents, publicity
Companies: ibm

7 Comments

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

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 8 Apr 2009 @ 4:02pm

The real outrage is that such things are even patentable.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
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...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 8 Apr 2009 @ 6:53pm

Re: Another way of looking at it
If you ignore IBM
[ link to this | view in thread ]