Innovation keeps rolling, Part 2 - 18 January 2024

Previously, I wrote about a patent idea I had at IBM that had been declined by the internal IBM patent review committee, and that a company had recently announced binoculars that used a strongly similar idea.  Let me return to the more general intellectual property (IP) arena in this note.

The success of new companies of the world is highly dependent on diligently and daily applying innovation to their products and processes.  Bookstores were simple repositories of books until Amazon unleashed technology on the selling and shipping of books and more.  Cars were glorified wristwatches until hybrids and then full electric vehicles (EVs) caused a reinvention of the automobile.  Even companies like Intel were glass manufacturers until ARM, Apple, Nvidia, and AMD showed that fabless semiconductor companies could be a thing.  You can debate specific examples, but the clear trend of business from 1924 to 2024 shows that those failing to apply technology have been left as footnotes; at best, they are quaint companies turning out homespun crafts.  

In recognition of this innovation force, companies set up internal procedures to generate patents.  IBM is probably the cannonical example.  IBM has long had an internal process that collected IP ideas, evaluated them through a committee process, and awarded IP "points" to inventors on patent filings that could be turned into cash and prizes.  (No kidding - my prize for one set of points was luggage.)  Little mafias and cliques grew up within IBM to keep churning out patents.  If your idea had the right co-inventors, you got points.  Even ideas that did not deserve filing were "published" and the authors got IP points as a result.  Perverted results aside, the system worked well, and IBM was the largest patent producer in the world for decades.  The innovations of IBM were world-class as demonstrated in their products, and IBM ruled the computer world.  Somewhere along the line of history, IBM reduced their emphasis on IP and technological excellence and pushed financial engineering.  While other companies continued to grow, IBM sold off parts of the company and shrank.  As I write this, the market capitalization of IBM is about $150 billion, while Apple and Microsoft are each (each!) $2.9 trillion.  

In the last few days, IBM has announced that they are terminating the old program  (that would issue cash and prizes) for a new program that issues BluePoints.  It is unclear what one can do with BluePoints, but cash awards for accumulating points seems to be elimiated.  Combined with other changes over the years, it is not clear that IBM has figured out how to exit their death spiral.  Cold days ahead for innovation at IBM.  Sad.