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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Wed, Apr 8th 2009 3:57pm




Filed Under:
outsourcing, patents, publicity

Companies:
ibm


IBM Abandons More Outrage-Provoking Offshoring Patent Requests

from the patent-review-by-pr dept

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!"

7 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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(Flattened / Threaded)

  1.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Apr 8th, 2009 @ 4:02pm

    The real outrage is that such things are even patentable.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re:

    identicon
    The infamous Joe, Apr 8th, 2009 @ 4:18pm

    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.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    NOT GRANTED??? NOT GRANTED???

    identicon
    PO Drone, Apr 8th, 2009 @ 4:44pm

    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.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  

    Re: Re:

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Apr 8th, 2009 @ 5:29pm

    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.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  

    Re:

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Apr 8th, 2009 @ 5:30pm

    There should be no outrage. These things are not patentable, at least in the United States, thanks to Bilski.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  

    Another way of looking at it

    identicon
    Big Al, Apr 8th, 2009 @ 6:18pm

    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...

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  

    Re: Another way of looking at it

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Apr 8th, 2009 @ 6:53pm

    If you ignore IBM

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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