Bob Engelhardt wrote:
anorton wrote:
... But the whole process of patenting something is very
tedious, times consuming, and not much fun.


Indeed. I was once the sole inventor of a widget that the company wanted
to patent. Rather than go through the process myself, I brought in a
colleague to do it. He would be a co-inventor, even though he had
nothing to do with it's design, and translate it into patent-ese. He was
an ambitious jerk who did it gladly, just to get another patent with his
name on it.

I had the opposite experience, sort of.

An engineer and I were chatting about his latest
invention. I mentioned a subtle improvement
which would serve to attach his doohickey in a
more secure manner. A couple weeks later, he
gives me a copy of the patent paperwork showing
me as a co-inventor! A month after that I got a
check for $1K from the company!

Not Too Shabby for a casual comment.

--Winston

--
You da man, Terry!