Thread regarding Intel Corp. layoffs

One of the reasons I never became a software architect at Intel - too much b---s--- with patents all the time. Why can't I just do my job and not pontificate all the time like most of the Intel architects. Got a great state job now where I am an architect and enjoying every minute - none of this patent crap...

Patents do not matter at all except for the immediate reward which may come your way at various stages of the disclosure/filing/award process. Certainly your being the inventor of a patent assigned to your employer does not afford you any special privileges or security. I hold 19 patents, one of which from 1997 with a former employer is occasionally cited in disputes by that former employer and is probably one of the slightly more valuable in their portfolio, but I see nothing in terms of ongoing benefit to me. I don't wish to jeopardize my anonymity here, but it is pivotal to the idea of a home pico-site onto which nominated (your family's) cellphones will camp, thus relieving network traffic, and along the way authenticating network privileges so that a VoIP connection from the cellphone's trusted networks may be substituted for the cellular network.

I found it became almost impossible to push new inventions through the Intel process in recent years for similar reasons cited in other post here. The first threshold is that a committee of others must decide whether it is in Intel's interest to patent it. On one occasion one of those individuals' colleagues patented a very similar invention 6 months after my invention was declined. More recently, an idea of mine for a blue-tooth enabled child's car seat which would alert a forgetful parent of a child left in a car was turned down for irrelevance. Less than 12 months later the same idea was being paraded on stage at IDF or ISMC by BK as an example of the very thing Intel ought to be doing, with a very photogenic female employee who was credited with its invention. After that I decided F***-it and just let the ideas die.

Your job is not Patentable, something about repeal of 13th ammendment by Donald

Patents matter for recognition and focal. Well, and at certain GL's you're expected to magically pull patents out, else be scolded.

It doesn't matter how many patents you have. I hold ten patents and still had to deal with system engineers with zero patents who were in various patent committees and tried to explain to me what is patentable and what isn't. One guy who used to be the manager of some innovation group in iCDG apparently holds exactly one co-authored patent. Coming up with patentable ideas and driving them through the filing process is not seen as an important skill at Intel. That, combined with the laughable patent bonusses, have made me give up on patents years ago.

Agreed. Number of patents is irrelevant in selecting ISP/VSP.

It matters if you are looking to switch to another company especially if you're looking for R&D related positions, as it looks good on your resume. You do not have claims over the patents but the patents recognize you as the inventor or co-inventor even after you leave Intel.

But within Intel itself, it does not matter. I have more than 10 patents and it matters not. What matters more is buddy-ing with the higher ups, as in entertaining and partying with the higher ups.

OP. I think you are looking at this in the wrong way.

1. Patents matter to you to the extent that for each patent you get, the employer rewards you with a nice little congratulations and RSU stock grant/bonus (well at least some companies do).

2. Patents matter to your employer to the extent that they have one more patent that they can use to extort royalty from or thwart a competitor.

Beyond that, patents don't mean much in terms are employer-employee relationships...In fact, after #1, the employer really considers that you were compensated for your patent and the patent is now the company's.

It won't provide you any more job security, frankly if that's what you are looking for.