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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

#291

Post by cloverich »

setquk wrote: post #216
StudentStuff wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Repeated unethical behavior is not the fault of a few bad actors, but of an organization designed to encourage that behavior. I wouldn't discount Google as being at fault seeing as how we already have two instances of Google's ATAP committing patent fraud despite little research and outreach being done. One fun fact I stumbled across is any misconduct when filing for a patent voids the entire patent application, not…

Assholes hire assholes. Eventually the assholes all float to the top and make asshole decisions. You can't win. This is a failure mode of every organisation I have ever seen.

My take on it is as long as there are instruments to abuse there will be unethical people to do so. Patent law and drug prohibition are equivalent, to me, in this way. They create unnatural economic sectors where unethical behavior is favored.

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

#293

Post by dctoedt »

londons_explore wrote: post #190
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.

Unless you've been visiting other offices from the one I've been visiting, the agreement pretty much says: * No taking photographs or video without permission. * Don't disclose things you see in the office outside the office It's literally 3 sentences, and they have handy little icons next to each. I see nothing about IP rights assignment or anything of the sort.

But different companies use different forms of visitor NDA — and lawyers purely love to load up contract forms with "protective" language to show how knowledgeable they are. This can be dangerous to counterparties; Stanford, in effect, lost part-ownership of a patent for HIV diagnostic testing because a Stanford investigator signed a visitor NDA that included IP-assignment language [0]. The case went all the way to the (U.S.) Supreme Court (about a tangential statutory issue).

The lesson: Always RTFA before signing it (where the A stands for the agreement), because sadly there's no such thing as an accepted, named standard.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University_v._Roche_M...

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

#294

Post by nathan_f77 »

lavezzi wrote: post #284
nathan_f77 wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow that's crazy. I didn't know they did stuff like that. Also I didn't know Google had patents for syncing audio across phones. I wonder if any of the mobile apps (like AmpMe [1]) have to pay some license fees. I once spent an evening researching the different apps that could sync audio across multiple devices [2]. I also wanted to build my own app, so tried to see if it would be possible (only if you have a jailbro…

I mean I don't have any context, but surely this is a similar technology they have implemented with their Google Home speaker system?

Oh, right! I've heard of Sonos, but I didn't know you could sync up multiple Google Home speakers. Yeah I guess that's probably the main reason for having those patents.

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

#295

Post by chrisweekly »

golergka wrote: post #137
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.…

I'm pretty sure I've seen this on Silicon Valley. Have been telling people who don't work in IT that it's pretty much a document from season one, and they refuse to believe me.

document -> documentary?

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

#296

Post by GenericsMotors »

asmithmd1 wrote: post #226
GenericsMotors wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe this was an honest misunderstanding and not an attempt to steal the idea because if the patent had issued and become valuable, it would have been easily invalidated. "Easily", if you have deep pockets to foot all the legal costs. Big companies know this, hence I don't think it was an innocent misunderstanding. The fact that they wouldn't even add OP as an assignee on the patent just reinforces my view tha…

There is no way a company would assign a patent they filed. Maybe they would give a low or no cost license to use it

How generous of them!

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

#298

Post by RossM »

londons_explore wrote: post #190
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.

Unless you've been visiting other offices from the one I've been visiting, the agreement pretty much says: * No taking photographs or video without permission. * Don't disclose things you see in the office outside the office It's literally 3 sentences, and they have handy little icons next to each. I see nothing about IP rights assignment or anything of the sort.

Same experience here, perhaps there's a different agreement for social visits and commercial meetings.

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

#299

Post by prolikewh0a »

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.…

bUt bUt...ChInA dOeS iP tHeFt

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

#300

Post by taneq »

sneak wrote: post #139
taneq wrote: post #6

I'm amazed at how relaxed their response is. If I told someone about some of my work and then found out they'd tried to patent it, I would be pissed !

If you want your secrets to remain secret, you shouldn’t divulge your secrets.

There were no secrets here. This was work, which was publicly published and promoted, which a third party then tried to not only plagiarize but also to lock others out of using.

I'm from a scientific background. Plaigarism is the most serious allegation you can level against someone. This is a whole 'nother level.

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