- Joined
- Feb 3, 2013
somejerk said:Holdek said:I don't think Bob got patent royalties. They probably go to GE. Not entirely sure about this though.
Unless corporate practices have changed dramatically since Bob was employed as an engineer, then this is correct. Anything designed using company resources and on company time is usually deemed the legal intellectual property of the company. He may have been credited on the patent, but the patent holder would still be General Electric.
It's also quite possible that Bob didn't come up with the ideas for the machinery, but merely formalized them into blueprints. As this guy says:
I would say the entire family is into self-aggrandizing, probably as a way to compensate for having such unimportant, miserable lives. For example, they (not only Chris, but Barb and Bob as well as seen on the e-mails to Nintendo and the conversation with Emily) seem to feel the need to mention to everyone that Bob has one patent and that he came up with the controls for plastic molding machines, without which "there would be no Nintendo or plastic bottles or anything".
Nevermind that, 99.9% sure, Bob's boss told him "hey, we need some controls for that new machine we're building, get on it" and if Bob hadn't come up with the design, some other guy would have. He didn't invent anything revolutionary, he just did his job and that was it.