At both R.W. and BR the patent policy was very liberal -- if the patent group thought an idea could be patented they pursued it, whether or not it seemed to be of interest to the company. If an employee came up with an interesting idea independently of his work they would pursue a patent on it for him, with the company taking some interest in it for their effort (they had made a search for me of a novel tooth pasted dispenser but there was "prior art". It was only about 1993 that the Crest "Neat Squeeze" package came out -- essentially my idea of 25 years earlier.
At Hughes, interesting ideas were rewarded with a book of the inventor's choice (I have three, rebound with a specially made cover engraved with the employee's name and the fact that it was an invention award from Hughes). However, unless the company had an immediate interest in the idea, no patent would be filed. This did not encourage suggestions nor provide employees with the number of resume-enhancing items that work at other companies would often yield. Of course Rand and System Development went to the other extreme -- they were not interested in building up a patent base (I have one joint invention from my time at Rand, but it was filed by the Gilfillan Company that worked with us on the "Gap Filler" radar).
On to California Polytechnic State University
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