On Jan 21, 2012, at 10:07 PM, V G wrote:

>> the idea is that you can win the prize AND sell the product
>=20
> Ah, didn't realize that.

I lot of the "little" prizes give relatively strong rights to the awarder o=
f the prizes; usually in the form of a perpetual royalty free license that =
allows them to publish the entries (whether they win or not.) (It's not muc=
h good to fund a contest to show off your product if you can't show anyone =
the results.)  (TI recently started a contest with such awful rules that th=
e community complained and TI corrected them: http://dangerousprototypes.co=
m/2012/01/18/texas-instruments-changes-outrageous-contest-rules/ )

The bigger prizes (X, Pullitzer, Nobel) tend to be simpler motivation/rewar=
d for doing something that the funders considered desirable.  There's a rea=
sonable looking wikipedia entry for the X prizes that explains some of the =
history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Prize_Foundation

BillW

--=20
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
.