Andy Kunz wrote:
[snip]
> The company has invested thousands, perhaps millions, to provide you a
> laboratory, secretary, etc. to give you the environment you need to
> innovate.

No lab , secretary etc, .... a desk ...yes

A very important part of that is job security.  The interest on
> $1M for a month is $4K (5% interest - very low). Oh yes - you are probably
> an at-will employee and can leave whenever you want.  Big risk there, not
> to mention that you might meet a Mack truck in your lane on the
> way to work
> one morning....

That still leaves my employer with this nice sum of money coming in each
month, I am not talking about money before doing an invention like this I am
talking about some monetary reward to make it worth my while to continue to
spew good idea's (at the moment I see no reason to give them 4 more patent
able ideas I have)

> $1000 split all around - probably a little cheap, but the concept makes
> life a lot simpler for everybody, including you.  Some patents don't pay
> off (Patents don't come cheap AFTER the thing is invented either
> - you have
> filings, reviews, and of course the challenges), but some pay off big.
> Just the fact that you are getting anything just for a patent
> award is good.

This is not about patents that might make money, but about patents that have
been saving millions per year even before they are issued, there is a
company building machines using the principles a patent will be issued for,
the DVD disks (my patent is about how to put the reflecting image on the top
disks) has been saving us/our customer 10 cents in printing cost for the
past 2 years or so.

>
> I look at it this way:  If they pay my salary on time, and it's a decent
> wage, my job IS to innovate.  That's what they pay me for.  If
> I'm sweeping
> the floors and come up with a new electronic gadget, I'd expect a bonus.

I'm only an integration engineer. the invention I did is not in my field.

> A regular salary sure beats the irregularity of self-employment.  But I
> keep the self-employment active to a degree because it makes for
> opportunities to score big on occasion.
>
> BTW, if you don't want your share of that $1000, you can mail it to me.  I
> accept personal checks <G>.
>
> Andy