Monday, August 10, 2020

Naive Owners Fire Man With The Patents, Man Sells Design To Competitors


Those young business owners often think that they know everything. Well, this guy certainly humbled a couple naive business owners in the long run. On top of that, this guy's decision to introduce a design that would effectively ward off locker thieves was brilliant. There certainly was a period of time when so many of those lockers were way too easy for people to break into. 

1.

Text - r/ProRevenge + Join u/kibufox • 9h Don't fire the guy who holds the patents. This is not my story. I was present for it, sure, but I did not see all of it personally. Rather, this is my father's story. So, some context. My father had a degree in mechanical engineering. Either a masters, or doctorate. It had taken him years to get, and he was very proud of that. Thanks to his training, he had found his way working for many well known companies; working primarily with the procedures used to

2.

Text - Over time, he'd privately began working on an idea that would revolutionize how school and gym worked. See, my father realized that there was a problem with those type of metal lockers. Namely, it was very easy for a person to break into them. What's more, as the lockers were designed, there were multiple moving exposed moving parts, which meant that if a student put too many books in one, or really anything got against the door, the locker could be jammed shut, making it near on impossib

3.

Text - Now, at this point, my father was the Vice President of manufacturing, and apparently there wasn't a clause in his contract that said that if he designed anything while working for the company; then he had to turn that over to them for profit. Dad still approached the company, offering them the design, but they weren't interested. Dad sat on the design for a while before eventually just taking out several patents on them, and then forgetting about them. About six months after his first at

4.

Text - young guys who seemed to think they knew everything (as young business owners always seem to think), and they set about changing 99% of the way things were being done. At some point, they stumbled across the plans my father had designed. Now that's where things turned curious. They really wanted to start producing this new design, but as they didn't have all the plans and processes laid out for them, they had to turn to my father for answers. Rather than asking him how to do it, or licens

5.

Text - So, after cleaning out his office, and packing things in the trunk of his car; my father headed home and made a few phone calls. He must have gone through eight or nine different calls before he got in touch with someone who was interested in what he had to say. See, my dad was under no illusions that the company that had fired him wasn't going to just make those patented lockers on their own. He also knew that though the company itself was relatively small, the owners had money and there

6.

Text - everything worked and noted that with this system the company could revolutionize the way lockers were both designed, and improve both safety and security. What's more, as he was the only patent holder, for the next seven years or so, that company could be the only company to produce them. The competitor jumped at the chance and bought all patents both for the design, and the process. They even paid my dad a substantial consultancy fee to go out to their manufacturing site and teach their

7.

Text - In the seven years from when the second company bought the locker design and process patents, they pretty handily moved into markets that previously they'd been unable to. The first company soldiered on, but by the time the patent had finally expired, they were a shadow of their former selves. The "new" owners had sold the company at a loss, with the competitor buying it, only to shut that production facility down due to redundancy. Put maybe 200 people out of work, though given how they'

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