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Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

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Re: Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

#61

Post by rhizome »

CryoLogic wrote: post #32
anilgulecha wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the specific idea: The idea is not unique, and really low hanging fruit for a mass site.

At the time, I could not find a single social media site that was using link-rewriting to make affiliate money. Blogs and fan sites for niche products had been using this to make money for a while, social media sites had not yet tried it. The close proximity with the announcement and my interview is what really bothered me. I have a strong feeling (but cannot prove) that someone I interviewed with took the idea and r…

Metafilter has had it for, oh, looks like almost 13 years:

https://metatalk.metafilter.com/11174/Im-proposing-a-small-c...

Re: Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

#62

Post by TheDong »

gammateam wrote: post #52

> More importantly, sharing work publicly keeps the project can alive and inspires others to continue developing! Which a patent does too, just with a license or 20 years later. It keeps people from reinventing the wheel and gives the disclosure rights even if they didn't have the infrastructure to create or monetize on their own. This isn't one of those nefarious software patents where the whole thing would be obsol…

> [a] patent [keeps thhe project alive] too

> perfect for a 20 year exclusivity period

So for 20 years, if I wish to create and sell a book with transistors I have to license the idea from google (that is if they're even willing to give me a license)?

And somehow having to go through that legal loophole will keep the art of creating LED books alive? You seriously believe that?

Does the patent have complex details which would take longer than 20 years for someone to independently discover about creating LED books? If so, people do save time by waiting 20 years and then reading the patent, but that seems extremely unlikely.

Re: Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

#64

Post by seshagiric »

Not in any supporting this, but likely what happened was:

a. some googlers met Leah for casual/interview talk

b. Leah describes her ideas in detail

c. Said Googlers steal her idea and patent it thinking 2 years is long time

d. Leah comes to know and Google is caught with hand in cookie jar

This is very Google should have practiced the do no evil. Instead they tried to salvage the situation.

Re: Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

#65

Post by CobrastanJorji »

CryoLogic wrote: post #32
anilgulecha wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the specific idea: The idea is not unique, and really low hanging fruit for a mass site.

At the time, I could not find a single social media site that was using link-rewriting to make affiliate money. Blogs and fan sites for niche products had been using this to make money for a while, social media sites had not yet tried it. The close proximity with the announcement and my interview is what really bothered me. I have a strong feeling (but cannot prove) that someone I interviewed with took the idea and r…

I worked for a medium-sized community that did this in 2009, I think. At the time, I don't remember it being novel.

Re: Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

#66

Post by dimator »

geezerjay wrote: post #28
Animats wrote: post #22

Did you sign Google's visitor agreement? Did you read Google's visitor agreement. You give up some IP rights by signing that. This is a case where it matters. When I visited Google, I refused to sign. They just give you a badge that said you didn't sign.

> Did you read Google's visitor agreement. You give up some IP rights by signing that. I guess the "don't be evil" thing is already well down the toilet. What's that all about? A new form of tribute when you're called upon to kiss Google's ring?

I'm pretty sure all companies do similar.

Re: Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

#67

Post by mikekchar »

ronilan wrote: post #15

Leah Buechley is the PhD advisor, Regina Dugan is Google ATAP, Joi Ito is Media Lab but... who is the first person speaker of the text? Am I missing something obvious or is it really omitted? Edit: possibly (probably?) https://twitter.com/qijie

It's very interesting that she is launching the PandaPatents site using her story as the impetus to help people navigate patent law. I haven't had time to look at it, but it sounds like an interesting idea.

Re: Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

#68

Post by mirimir »

neonate wrote: post #36
beautifulfreak wrote: post #24

If the author pops in here, I hope he takes a look at this patent, because it might be prior art: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8512151 I complained about it to the "Stupid Patent of the Month" attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (here: https://www.eff.org/issues/stupid-patent-month ) and got a nice response agreeing that it looks obvious.

I think the author is a she.

True, but I didn't see that she identified herself, or her gender, in the article. So what's a commenter to do? That's an honest question. Mangle to use "they"? Use some genderless pronoun that'll piss off x% of readers?

Re: Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

#69

Post by Twisol »

geezerjay wrote: post #39
Twisol wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes this terrible advice? Is there something in particular about landing a job at Google that makes it objectively better in every value system than continuing with a PhD that one is already seeking? I left a very good position on the table after my undergrad, in favor of pursuing a graduate degree. I weighed my options and decided that I would rather spend some years in my youth learning how to conduct resear…

> What makes this terrible advice? Some PhD programs focus on non-marketable topics that don't help candidates develop marketable skills, and exist only to dump the research group's drudge work on an unsuspecting soul. Wasting years of your life in a low-pay low opportunity dead-end job that's prone to abuse just to pursuit a pipe dream is not a great career move, particularly if the alternative is landing a job at G…

This is all true! Entering into a graduate program without being fully aware of what you’re embarking on and what you’re getting out of it is a bad idea. But I would argue this generalizes beyond just grad school.

Some people enjoy scholarship and research. There are places that support this. To generalize only slightly unfairly, most of industry is not conducive to this kind of personal goal. Pipe dream it may be, but we still have artists and musicians.

Re: Google Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

#70

Post by scruffyherder »

Animats wrote: post #22

Did you sign Google's visitor agreement? Did you read Google's visitor agreement. You give up some IP rights by signing that. This is a case where it matters. When I visited Google, I refused to sign. They just give you a badge that said you didn't sign.

On that terminal thing near the big cafeteria? they just clicked something that was obviously android and handed me one.

I guess they agreed on my behalf?

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