Peter, it looks like u're getting the short end of a skinny carrot, ask for
a better position and better pay or better yet, start hunting for a better
job THEN negotiate. Inventors, (the word which is said with a huge grin on
patent con artist faces...), have never had it harder since the days of
Edison. If ur other ideas have nothing to do with ur actual job function,
look for businesses that are more interested and less stingy.

I certainly hope u got ur name on the patent or i'd say u've been ripped
off big time. Businesses have to play the dirty game to survive but if they
do that to their employees, let them keep the no talents hungry for an easy
day to day job doing nothing more then that which is required from them.

Terry

At 06:45 PM 8/25/99 -0400, you wrote:
>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
>