> Trading work around an informal network is great.  However, I know some
> guys who will expand any task given them and try to suck up the client.  I
> hired a guy to design me an XYZ module for an appliance, and soon he had
> convinced the marketing department, without bothering me about it, to let
> him design the whole shebang.  I got to test it a little bit after it was
> done, he got to patent it.

Would you have been the one getting the patent if you hadn't brought him
in? Was his patent 'obvious' to anyone 'skilled in the art' or did he
create new intellectual property? Who paid for the patenting and who got the royalty?
Where/what is this guy now?

Patents themselves are not terribly important unless you have the
very deep pockets necessary to defend them.

Robert

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu