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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

#271

Post by hedvig »

usrusr wrote: post #149
CryoLogic wrote: post #20

Something very similar happened to me. When I was at university studying CS I was running a Arduino fansite and a fansite for a videogame - both of whom made most of their money from affiliate revenue (a couple hundred bucks per month). I thought it would be cool to work at Reddit (was close to graduating), and I had read blog posts from here and various other sites and IRC about how hiring managers liked projects. I…

> I talked about this in the interview and suggested they could make around 2 million per month if they hired me and used my script. Obviously I don't know how the rest of the interview went, but the way you put it in the retelling makes it sound a lot like it was distracting from all the other reasons to hire you. "How about that two million guy?" - "We hire developers, not libraries" It might have been that they no…

Oh god forbid an potential employee feels he has some power in this transaction.

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

#272

Post by PurpleBoxDragon »

kbutler wrote: post #103
georgeek wrote: post #94

Just a reminder that Google, or any company for that matter, has a fiduciary duty towards their shareholders to file a patent for everything they have learned about and that hasn't been patented yet.

There's a common myth that companies have "a fiduciary duty" to make as much money as possible (especially short-term), but this has no basis in law in the US. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/13-354.html "modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not do so... a for-profit corporation may take costly pollution-control and…

>"companies that maximize profits by firing employees, avoiding taxes, selling shoddy products or polluting the environment can harm their shareholders more than helping them."

In which case are they really maximizing profits? Wouldn't it depend upon the risk and costs of those options verses their benefits?

It's like genetic algorithms that look like they don't work because someone miscalculated exactly what the fitness function was optimizing.

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

#273

Post by api »

jules wrote: post #134

If your country has "democratic" in the name it's probably not democratic. If your major has "science" in the name it's probably not science. If your company has "don't be evil" in its motto...

So we should start a country called the Totalitarian Empire of Evil and it would be a utopia? I'm in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNhhz1yYk2U

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

#274

Post by tjalfi »

armada651 wrote: post #182
jules wrote: post #134

If your country has "democratic" in the name it's probably not democratic. If your major has "science" in the name it's probably not science. If your company has "don't be evil" in its motto...

So Computer Science is Engineering?

There's a good part of Computer Science that's like magic. Unfortunately there's a bad part of Computer Science that's like religion. - Hal Abelson

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

#275

Post by api »

village-idiot wrote: post #246
paul7986 wrote: post #91

I met/had a similar experience with Google ATAP in 2013 (was Motorala ATAP then; Google recently bought them) though not for a job interview but to discuss working together to build our tech SpeakerBlast into the Moto X. They asked if we ever thought about selling our technology to them before the meeting and at the meeting they baited us for how our tech worked saying we'd like to work with you tell us how it works.…

Google’s motto was don’t be evil, they’ve clearly changed their mind.

Ignore corporate claims such as "don't be evil."

The problem isn't that those claims were lies. I'm sure Google's founders actually intended Google to "not be evil." The problem is that a corporation (or a government, university, church, fraternal organization, you name it) is made up of people. As such things get big they end up being made up of many, many people. Leaders change. Managers change.

When an org gets big some of its people will be assholes because some people are assholes.

Google has been through several CEOs and is a publicly traded company with the latter meaning that it's subject to market pressure and activist investors. It's also a company large enough and relevant enough to be a "national security" interest, making it likely subject to government and intelligence infiltration, pressure, and micromanagement.

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

#276

Post by thefringthing »

grecy wrote: post #243
TheForumTroll wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If your country has "democratic" in the name "The United Democratic States of North America not including Canada" would be quite the name.

It would surely be "The Federal Republic of the Democratic United States of America" (I've been in Africa waaaaay too long :) )

"Pepsi Presents The Federal Republic of the Democratic United States of America"

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

#277

Post by dd36 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #181
jules wrote: post #134

If your country has "democratic" in the name it's probably not democratic. If your major has "science" in the name it's probably not science. If your company has "don't be evil" in its motto...

Any man who must say, "I am the king" is no true king.

Howard Stern is the king of all media.

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

#278

Post by humanrebar »

polynomial wrote: post #242
humanrebar wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advanced CS work has more to do with psychology and sociology than science and engineering in my experience.

Care to elaborate?

The problems (or at least the solutions) stop being technical and start being cultural and political pretty quickly.

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

#279

Post by JoeAltmaier »

I've been named an inventor on several patents. If I read the applications, I hardly recognize the 'art' we invented. Somehow the legalese gets derailed, or they asked somebody else (not me) to help describe it. Anyway, the patent and the idea (software organization) are hardly recognizable as related.

Note: I did not instigate the patent process. The company lawyers did. I extricated myself from the process early.

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

#280

Post by 13of40 »

humanrebar wrote: post #227
saalweachter wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some things in CS programs are engineering, other things are philosophy.

Advanced CS work has more to do with psychology and sociology than science and engineering in my experience.

I agree, but I'd say "software engineering" rather than "CS". It's hard to produce software at scale without herding lots of cats.
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