We need to innovate to grow our companies.  And, as I have always believed and averred, businesses, governments, and non-profits need to be creative and innovate on a regular, almost continuous, basis.   It’s what I have tried to do when I have been a division head, a “skunks works” leader, or CEO/COO of an enterprise.But, not all companies (or governments or non-profits, to be sure) understand this.  One of my first employments involved a “discussion” of the assignment of patents to my employer.  I refused to agree to provide a blanket patent assignment to the company.  The CEO felt I was being unreasonable.  When I asked him how many products (patents) he expected from his good technologists, his reply was 1 to 2 every few years.  (Trust me, that number was probably higher than his expectation, but I did not argue with the number.)  My position was if I were to develop one new product a year- that should be the company’s.  But, any developments beyond that should involve special compensation to me.  And, the company would get to choose which one it wanted each year.  He eventually agreed (only after there were multiple products in the pipeline and no patent assignation on file from me)- and we parted company soon, thereafter.

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