Infosys Seeks U.S. Patent On Offshoring U.S. Jobs

from the will-that-exclude-others? dept

Mon, Apr 12th 2010 9:13pm — Mike Masnick

theodp writes "It's interesting to see that famed offshoring firm Infosys is now seeking U.S. patent protection for its Framework for Supporting Transition of One or More Applications of an Organization, which Infosys explains 'relates generally to the field of outsourcing or offshoring of one or more applications of an organization.' Prior to this invention, Infosys says it was necessary for a vendor organization to incur hefty visa and travel costs to allow a 'significant number' of employees from its offshore location to 'visit the client's location to interact with the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)' before returning 'to the offshore location to transfer the knowledge to the offshore team."

Funny. Wasn't it just a year ago that IBM was pressured to abandon its patent application on offshoring?

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: offshoring, patents
Companies: infosys

9 Comments

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

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 12 Apr 2010 @ 10:17pm

What further proof do we need to confirm patent filing abuse has gone completely out of control?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CMK (profile), 13 Apr 2010 @ 1:54am

Offshoring applicaions is NOT able to be patented
I had this idea before this upstart company existed... and so did half the technically ept people on the planet. It's not open to patent. We need to stand up and declare such companies to be the cockroaches and bottom-feeders that they truly are.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2010 @ 3:35am

Give them the patent if and only if they refuse to let anyone else use the technology and plan to enforce it with a vengeance.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bhaktha, 13 Apr 2010 @ 4:13am

Idiocity check before filing
Isn't there somebody in the corporate world (in this case IBM and InfoSys) who does cursory checking on the patents that are being filed ? How the heck in the world can you patent outsourcing when there are a million companies here in Bangalore exactly doing that ? Companies do spend significant amount of resources for filing a patent app (I know this for sure, I have a few patents awarded while working for large companies), thought there there would be some basic sort of filtering, especially from someone like InfoSys. I did read the patent application, this is an absolute shame.

How about a fine by the USPTO for such sham patent apps ? Applications like this bring a bad name to the current patent system.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ronald J. Willey, 13 Apr 2010 @ 5:11am

Never Met a Patent I didn't like
This patent deserves protection in order to promote the useful arts and sciences. You all know this to be true. Without such protection, this company and others like it would certainly disappear from the face of the earth, never to be seen again and the subsequent loss of their contribution to the useful arts and sciences would be all your fault.

Drooling on my own behalf
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 13 Apr 2010 @ 11:36am

Bank of America already has this patent. I see prior art. Shell/HP/Dell
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Gana, 21 Apr 2010 @ 12:07pm

Not trying to defend but did you even read the patent completely "FRAMEWORK FOR SUPPORTING TRANSITION OF ONE OR MORE APPLICATIONS OF AN ORGANIZATION

Abstract

A framework for supporting transition of one or more applications of an organization is provided. The one or more applications are transitioned from a first set of users to a second set of users. The framework includes a transition module, a knowledge capture module, a knowledge validation module, and a collaboration module. The transition module generates one or more transition plans based on information corresponding to the one or more applications. The knowledge capture module captures a plurality of knowledge elements corresponding to the one or more applications. The knowledge capture module further establishes association between the plurality of knowledge elements. The knowledge validation module validates the plurality of knowledge elements and their association. The collaboration module provides collaboration between the first set of users and the second set of users during the transition of the one or more applications. "

Infosys is trying to patent the methodology and not the offshoring itself!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
KS, 30 May 2010 @ 10:19pm

Bunch of fools
There's yellow journalism and then there's a bunch of fools who vomit their 'opinions' based on this yellow journalism......if you guys are literate, please try to read the patent first......
[ link to this | view in thread ]
George, 16 Oct 2011 @ 6:15pm

Re:
If it's this simple, I'm going to create a couple of patents myself

Framework for taking food out of fringe efficiently: includes open module, withdraw module, place module and collaboration module.

1. Open module: Technique of using mechanical by either automated or biological processes or electrical force to move refridgerator (here to referred to as "food storage device to make it sound more complicated) door in open position.
2. Withdraw module: Combination of actions that lead to the withdrawal of object from food storage device.
3. Place module: Using gravitational, frictional forces along with laws of motion to place object from food storage device to open or closed area.
4. Collaboration consumption module: social or loner set of activities of consuming object from food storage device.

I'm just trying to patent the methodology and not the process itself!
[ link to this | view in thread ]