I am NOT a patent attorney. I don't know patent law and litigation issues and have not kept up with much of the furor around software patents &...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
What a great question!! I wish I could write an essay on this or spent all my time here!!
DIVERSIFY & READ. Turns out that when you read about various disciplines (outside your core competency) you get this amazing ability to start making connections you hadn't made before. One of my favorite ideas related to social search for TV - where we had been exploring ideas for what we could do on the blank (idle) real estate on the TV when you pause it. And then we asked "why do people pause it in the first place" - and the conversations with folks in design/UX helped identify that one aspect was to get a closer look at something on screen - and that led to a discussion on "how do we find out what that is" and then "how do we get the answer".. and so on. Today we would say "computer vision" - but at that time we got to a solution that combined image-capture with social crowdsourcing
You can see some of it here (slideshare.net/nitya/the-evolution...)
TALK TO PASSIONATE PEOPLE. Don't listen for success stories. Listen for the failures. Listen for the irritations and frustrations and damn-i-wish-i-had-x moments that these conversations bring up. That's where innovation lies. If you look at the share economy - no one saw that as disruptive. It took someone to be the first to say "everyone has X and isn't using it - what would it take for me to get X on-demand"?
Attend/View academic conferences. In particular hugely recommend ACM CHI (Human Factors conference) - at the end of the day most meaningful innovation comes from a desire to make humans lives better.
Yes yes yes to this one. It is amazing how many good ideas there are outside your core focus. It's also a great way to break up the monotony of what your day-to-day focus is without getting too scattered. I do this so much and I feel like it's sort of my secret weapon.
I also like historical accounts of technology, like The Victorian Internet, which give you a lot of context into what it takes for invention to take place fundamentally. If something is true in 2017 and also seems like it was essentially true in 1917 and 1417, it's probably fundamentally true and not a fad.
Also: If you have a hard time finding time for books, audiobooks can really fit well into your life. 🙂
How are you certain that your code is patent material? When do you decide to patent your work?
As an inventor in a large company, that issue was perhaps easier to manage for me at the time. I think it is a tougher question to ask of small startups.
In large companies, there is usually a number of folks in the process pipeline to help guide the decision. Some factors that are valuable:
Is the idea related to a specific product or portfolio - this is usually for the business value part of things. Patents cost money/time so it has to be worth putting the time/resources into it.
Do you have meaningful results and work to back up the invention - this is the "no vaporware" filter. In general most of the things I patented were tied to research projects we worked on, in which there was a functional implementation as well as peer-reviewed conference publications that helped validate the ideas.
Is this invention narrow or broad - this is the "can people work around it" filter. Narrow inventions are usually less valuable since they allow others to get nearly-good-enough results by simply going around that narrow claim. Broad inventions are more valuable but harder to defend if they are TOO broad. Knowing the right balance takes experience.
Are there other approaches (related work) and is it detectable (can I tell if someone uses it).
In general I found patents and research publications were similar in their ability to separate good ideas from great ones. A good idea is one that solves a problem but you can easily come up with other ways to approach it if you give it some thought. A great idea is one that has had substantial thought (exploring all issues and finding solutions to them) which makes it harder to replicate.
Most companies have reviewers, committees and subject matter experts to help simplify the process.
How have you found ways to balance your "day" job with the work you do for GDG? I want to be more involved in tech education outside of work, but find myself worried about burning out.
What a great question!!
So the honest answer is: NO! I haven't found the "best" way to balance work with community / evangelism work, and YES! burnout is real.
That said, I am now in a better place about how I think about this and make choices - it's a WIP but the biggest positive step for me was this year, when I started trying to clearly articulate three things:
Motivation - WHY am I doing this? e.g., what is my goal? and what are the checkpoints or milestones that help me measure my progress?
Incentive - WHAT am I getting from it? e.g., if this is for altruism, my incentive should be a sense of fulfillment; if it is for professional growth, my incentive should be a growth in network or influence; if it is for monetary gain, then beware! There is a delicate balance between making something sustainable (meet costs) and making it profitable (business) - and I recommend reading this article (whistlinginthewind.org/2013/01/15/...) by one of my favorite people (Dan Ariely) on why moving from social obligations to money-minded ones can be a one-way street.
Opportunity Cost - What am I LOSING by doing this? e.g., what else could I be doing with the time/resources I am spending on this, which would meet the same goals as 1? and what else do I actually need time for (e.g., family) that I am sacrificing for this.
Burnout happens when your dis-incentive to do something outweighs your motivation to do it. And more often than not, burnout is a mental wellness issue. It's about emotional labor, decision fatigue and excessive stress. I was lucky I saw the signs earlier this year and took a step back to work on myself. Here is my current strategy.
Break my day into 5-9am / 9am-5pm / 5-9pm / 9pm-5am.
The 9am-5pm is for professional growth. I dedicate time to tasks that help me grow my professional network, execute on my client obligations, explore new career venues. As a remote worker & consultant, GDG and public speaking contribute to this segment by giving me resources to learn new things & connect with people who then recruit me for various projects. Whatever I do here, I need to justify how it helps my career.
5am-9am is for self-care and family. I focus on quiet time, getting ready for the day, making healthy foods, gym & sometimes sketching (my version of meditation).
9pm-5am is for sleep. I never make it just right - mostly I end up sleeping later and waking up later, but I keep trying. It's the most critical thing I need to work on. Often times when tasks in other blocks run over, I sacrifice sleep (stay up till 1am, wake up at 5am) and that is unsustainable.
5pm-9pm is my only "flex time" - everything else I do needs to fit into this. This include mom-gineer duties and emotional labor. I play this by ear.
Splitting the day into these time zones helps me quantify time spent. I say NO more often. I ignore more emails/alerts, stay off social media more and try to reduce other distractions during the day.
I've also found that the altruistic work has paid dividends in other ways - speaking opportunities, requests to build courses (for profit), consulting gigs (and offers for full-time), entrepreneurial opportunities (starting an apps lab) etc.
The key is to weigh those three: motivation, incentive & opportunity cost - and take a decision that prioritizes YOU.
I agree with your implication that having a tech hobby can lead to burnout. In my experience, I have 4-6 hours of intense development work in me per day (occasionally 12-18 hours). If I get up early and work on a hobby project then arrive at work at for a regular day, my productivity period ends far earlier than if I didn't work on the hobby first. I've started considering what is scheduled for the day before diving into a hobby project. If it is nothing but meetings, I can easily afford the hobby time.
Hi Nitya!
From an educator's perspective - how do you encourage creative confidence in a first time innovator?
Another great question!!!
Based on my experience I would say this (and this is assuming you are an innovator working in a company that has some team/resources -- and not an individual)
Participate in Ideation Sessions.
These are often unconference-like sessions where people try to think about new ideas or projects that they want to do. It's not about invention but really about coming up with new problems/ideas. Try to have diverse people in these sessions (folks from data sciences, UX/UI, systems, front-end, devops ...) and just feed ideas off each other and build on them. This helps get you into that mode of understanding how different pieces fit, and potentially gets you collaborating on projects (or with people) you would not have envisioned otherwise. The 20% project idea is a great example.
Be a co-author on the first disclosure.
Work with someone else who has done this before so you can learn from them. If you did (1) then chances are that when the time comes to patent something there, that you have a number of contributors. Know what your contribution is - but let someone else take the lead in the writeup and ask how you can help. There are many parts to writing and learning to do them all takes time.
Volunteer. Volunteer. Volunteer.
Many companies have dedicated patent committees with senior folks and lots of backlogs. They usually need volunteers to do a ton of spadework (e.g., find relevant art for this idea) - ask if you can help. If others senior innovators are doing a "scrub" (session where a project is explored for IP) ask if you can sit in and listen and take notes for them. Be present.
After a few cycles not only will you be a better thinker, but you will start seeing the patterns and people that can help boost your understanding.
Thank you, Nitya! These are great suggestions. I especially love the idea of being a co-author, allowing yourself to have a guiding hand makes so much sense when traversing anything for the first time!
How do you balance the need for making sure you recoup the R&D costs that went into a patent vs fostering adoption and further innovation on ideas? What tools do you think work best for this coherently? Aggressive patent expire dates?
This is a great question!!! I don't have good answers but I have a ton of opinions :-)
I struggled with this myself because of the constant tension between the "good" side of patents (protecting those who have invested time/money into meaningful innovation - and giving them room to improve it while recouping costs) -- and the "bad" side of patents (becoming a club to bludgeon smaller startups that could move quickly to get ahead in the innovation game).
I think the patent system is flawed if not broken because
(a) choosing what/when to patent is increasingly a numbers/advantage game rather than about those goals above
(b) the examiners who actually make the decision to issue the patent (i.e., until it is "issued" it really is just paper in a pipeline) are overburdened with applications and potentially under-staffed in resources. Think about it. There are millions of innovators filing things, each of whom have had dedicated time to put into research/identification. But examiners need to have all these connections in their head to determine if that idea is in fact new & viable etc. - and as tech grows, it becomes harder to know everything and easier to make mistakes.
So in that sense, folks with resources (money, time) to pursue these get an advantage.
My hope is that the following happens:
There is room for rethinking this.
(I had something else I wanted to say but darn it I forgot)
How long is the typical patent process?
It depends.
There is the internal process (from ideation to write-up, review and filing) and the external process (patent office review, examiner actions, final issue)
The internal process is based on the urgency (disclosure before public conference talk or tradeshow event vs. invention session) and the committees involved. Typically we had committees that met monthly and reviewed all submissions that were available by then. And amongst those, we prioritized for immediate relevance, inventor/reviewer availability etc. Anything from a month to a year..
The external process is not under our control (or at least that's how I felt). If your disclosure was found to have value and filed, then it could be anywhere from a few months to 10+ years before you saw the results :-) My fastest external turnaround was just a few months. The slowest was 7 years. And I still have a few in the pipeline that could potentially clear out any day and move that needle
What were some common mistakes you saw with first-time innovators?
I think there are two key issues that I found were the hardest.
1.
Inventors are justifiably proud of how they solved the problem. And so many disclosures (= writeup of the invention that goes for internal review) would focus on "How I solved problem A with solution B". However the focus of patents is actually exclusion. In other words -- what about your solution is critical to PREVENTING someone from replicating it. So brevity and focus are key. If you write about the 10 things that you did but only 2 of them were the core "obstacles" -- then you are diluting the value of your patent. Knowing what to pick to protect is hard!
2.
The value of inventions also lies in detectability. If a competitor were to use my invention (e.g., I patented it to protect it, then shared my insights/process in a conference where my competitor learnt how I did it) -- but that usage is not VISIBLE to the external world, then there is no way to enforce the patent clause. This was particularly important when we had ideas related to embedded systems or communications protocols that added efficiencies which were not necessarily easy to detect/measure by a common user.
This is where the champion value came into play. Getting past inventors to mentor first-time innovators was useful.
What does the patent review process look like and how many people are involved? Are there any best practices you recommend for innovators going through the process for the first time?
In my experience:
The patent review process was 3 steps:
Innovators write up their idea using a template provided by the patent committee (PC) - this asks the key questions about idea, business value, novelty, related work etc. This is then entered into the system and queued up for the review process. Typically in order to do this, you need to have approval from your manager (because reviewing/filing costs money so prioritization is key) and need to have it witnessed by folks (to ensure that this was in fact YOUR invention)
The committee schedules it for review and allocates a subject matter expert to review it with the innovators. There is usually 1 tech reviewer (for idea novelty) and 1 business reviewer (for ideal value). They both meet with inventors and have a discussion at which time they enter their ratings (privately) into the system for the PC to see.
The most important thing is to have that talk with the reviewer and be as candid as possible. They are your voice in the PC meeting (after you leave) so you really want to have the longest conversation you can with them. If you are a first-time innovator ask your PC which inventions are on the docket for an upcoming schedule - then reach out to one of those scheduled and ask if you can sit in on the inventor/reviewer meeting. You will learn a lot by just understanding how they approach the issue.
Second thing is to recognize that very few of your ideas will actually make it past the PC and that's okay. It's not that they aren't good or novel. It's the fact that they may not be a priority for the current product, or that their business value is unclear or ... or .. or.
Bottom line is that at least for me innovating was not about the IP but about the process of finding a problem and solving it with some out-of-the-box thinking, then writing it up in a way that articulated value to a broader class of problems. So keep writing them and you get better each time - and at the very least it influences the way you approach architecture later.
I became a big fan of Motorola's phone hardware after Google bought Motorola. Not sure if you were still working with Motorola when Google came in, but did you see a big shift in culture/thinking after a merge/acquistion?
Personal opinion only!!!
Yes I was there when the acquisition happened. And we were a wholly-owned subsidiary so we were not considered Googlers - we were still Motorolans (and btw, I am hugely proud of being an ex-Motorolan. They had incredible innovation & amazing people in that company and they changed my way of thinking forever)
I had been there a decade and a lot of folks I worked with had been there too - so I didn't see a shift in culture. However as a research lab, we did have a little more emphasis on IP given that (and this is reflected in blogs everywhere) the Motorola patent portfolio was a key asset for that deal. That said, I think the bigger shift was the explosion in software innovation and platforms that happened, which made a lot more players competitive in the mobile hardware market.
Is there a big difference between hardware and software development?
Yes!!
IMO hardware takes more dollars/time/resources to develop - and is easier to detect infringements on. Also hardware refreshes (new generations) take time so the IP protection makes sense and has value.
Software development is getting faster every day with more choices, more competition and constant evolution. The risk that something you work on gets obsoleted by your tech choices is real.
I never thought about it that way 😥. Thank you for answering!
Do I need to worry about patents if I am planning on starting my own website?
Honestly? I wouldn't!
Patents take time and money. A lot of time. A lot of money. Unless the return on investment is worthwhile, it is better to spend your time/money focusing on differentiating your product via a better UX, customer engagement and feature additions.
If you have spent X years and Y dollars on doing the spadework to improve an idea - and now want to create a startup from it, it might be worth exploring if there is IP there but there are other things to check.
Thanks for replying
You saved me a lot of headache!!
Hi Nitya! Have you ever been afraid that some of the things you worked on would be used for something that you'd morally object to?
Yes.
I was lucky that most of my work was in the mobile/television space and focused on core applications that weren't "life-critical".
That said -- there is always the fear in anything you do (public speaking, writing, development - not just innovation) that your output could be used for things you personally don't hold with, or that they could be misconstrued.
And especially this year I've come to the realization that you can't control everything. And constantly worrying about things creates its own version of emotional labor and decision fatigue that does no good. Instead the only thing you can do is clarify and mitigate. Be clear about what YOU stand for. Be clear about WHY you did something. And if things changed then do what is in your power to do, to mitigate the damage. And that's all.
If you work for a company, sometimes you do things because that's your job - and without questioning the why/where of the endgame. You make choices. Just make sure you assess those choices well.
Fantastic and valuable answer. Thank you very much.
How has the software industry changed since your time at Motorola Labs? How would a similar type of operation conduct itself differently today?
I think there have been two big changes (and some of this is a personal opinion).
1.
I think it is harder to think about software patents as valuable or even viable these days because the technology stacks keep changing at such a rapid pace. One of the reasons I truly treasure and love my R&D past is that we were just entering the mobile revolution and ubiquitous computing & social networking were huge disruptors but also opportunities to innovate. We could ask hard questions (e.g., How can I make ad hoc networking apps without depleting the battery) and have the time/resources to focus on finding the right solutions. Today, the pace is harder and patience shorter from investors. We see companies cutting corners and making unethical decisions in the name of valuation - without actually thinking about how it advances the broader technology discourse. I miss the humanity behind engineering and the people who genuinely thought of innovation as a way to make something better (not someone richer)
2.
I think the focus today is going to be on Artificial Intelligence. I am excited but also puzzled by what "invention" will mean when the "learning" is all by machines. Do they see nuances of behavior? So a huge asset for any inventor is not necessarily learning how to solve the problem for the FIRST time, but realizing that the problem may have been solved in a DIFFERENT domain and then finding a way to translate the context and the solutions to the current need. This to me was the most important (and most fulfilling) part of research - finding and making connections that matter. But when we come to AI, its learning is driven by the examples we provide. Are we providing enough diversity for it to make these connections across disciplines? I don't know. I think that anyone looking to write up a software patent today needs to ask "how does this method or system change if the interfaces between the components change?" -- needs us to start thinking in a new way about what invention means.
Which Google services/APIs are most interesting to you right now?
This one is easy.
I started my tech career as an applications engineer out of college (unit testing FTW)
Then did a PhD in distributed systems and focused on enterprise.
Then worked in mobile/television computing at Motorola and focused on consumer.
But its only in the past 4+ years that I've started exploring more of the web and data sciences side.
And thanks to the GDG hat I wear I get to explore a really wide variety of things. It keeps changing but the top 3 are:
Firebase = for work + fun. Primarily because it short-circuits the time I need to go from idea to prototype to deployed app, and I can outsource front-end stuff to different people with diverse backgrounds, and it still works.
Machine Learning = not a google-specific thing though I am working my way through TensorFlow and CloudML. However I do favor Google tech here primarily because when it comes to ML, having the right DATA is key - and there are very few companies that can learn/evolve at this scale. Using their products lets me get to a really good v1 really quickly, and then finesse to my needs.
Progressive Web Apps = I have worked with mobile for years but have become a fan of open web. And while there are wars to be fought, I like the core PWA vision of enabling web apps that can compete with native experiences by virtue of focusing on needs like offline-first, real-time notifications & fast loads/renders. Also a fan of web components but that's a longer story.
What are some things you'd like to see in regards to workforce retraining?
This seems fortuitous as I'm trying to nail down the skills and qualities of Sr. Developer today and would love your input.
dev.to/programazing/which-qualitie...
After 2 decades in tech I have stopped putting faith in titles/roles and tried to spend more time figuring out the character/motivation/strengths/weaknesses of the person behind them. If this comes off as a non-answer, it is not intentional.
Here is why.
Skills, roles, titles - those are manipulated on a daily basis to get past the HR screens and the search engines. But without context, those are meaningless. If you are a 3-person startup then the "Senior Developer" is the person doing the most work on the product short of setting the directions/strategy. And if you are in a giant company with tiered roles, then you could work for a decade and still be a "Software Engineer Level X" when you retire. Is one better than the other?
It's all about context.
To me, it matters WHO is asking and WHY.
We are all junior developers when we tackle new domains or technology platforms.
We are all senior developers if we are asked about projects we have personally worked on, designed, architected or shipped.
I personally think we need to get rid of these gradations - I know from industry that titles tell you nothing about capabilities. Instead they reflect salaries, access rights and decision-making powers - which effectively group people into buckets without recognizing their individuality.
Instead I think a better way is to say "I am a Software Developer with X years experience working on Y in the Z industry/domain" -- in a startup context, that could qualify me to be a VP Engg while the same thing could qualify me to be just one of many Staff Engineers in a bigger company.
But that minor rant aside, here is what I see as the core qualifies of a "seasoned" developer.
Constantly learning. They recognize that tech changes fast, and keep one eye on the horizon.
Problem solving. They recognize that they DON'T know everything but they have the self-confidence to ask others for advice/help and to get their hands dirty trying out different options till they have one that works, even if it is imperfect.
Collaborative. They realize that they are neither at the very top of the food chain, nor at the very bottom. And that to survive/thrive, they need to work with both their junior team members and their senior team managers. That requires a certain expertise in personal interactions, empathy, compromise and willingness to listen - that is really rare.
Autonomous. They value independence and can reliably deliver results without constant oversight and hand-holding. More importantly, they are proactive in reporting both successes and failures. The hardest thing in tech is to be willing to take responsibility for failures - or give people bad news. The true test of seniority (for me) is the willingness to take accountability with the clarity of realizing that it is another lesson learnt that will help improve the product/project in it's next iteration.
Pragmatic. They understand that some battles must be lost in order to win the war. They don't get dazzled by every shiny new bauble of tech that comes their way - and instead focus on making "best decisions for current contexts in limited time". In that sense, seniority benefits from multiple years of experience - junior engineers are those facing a situation/context for the first time (which can result in analysis paralysis), while senior engineers effectively shrug, say "it happens", and get to figuring out how to fix it and move forward.
Note that none of these are tech/platform specific. Most are behavioral - and IMO those are some of the most intangible (yet critical) aspects of hiring that today's interview processes fail to asses correctly.
Have you ever hit the wall, in code-development terms? I've been doing embedded software for 34 years. My biggest challenge is keeping focus. Though I will never have the luxury of a sabbatical, I often think it would be a great tool to get a talented programmer back in the saddle.
Hii, I have a lot's of questions. I don't know if this AMA has ended or not but still taking my chances.
1) Did you study in India?
2) Is there a way to see your patents?
3) I see you mentioned IP few times in your replies does that mean International Patents or something else?
4) In the field of software engineering and computer science, which areas do you think should need more R&D apart from ML & AI?
Hey Nitya, thanks for doing this AMA!
I'm interested in your role at SUNY New Paltz. Can you share a little about how one can "defend" a fledgling idea (and the associated IP), and how long that protection typically lasts?
Have you or would you ever worked with a person that has a known mental illness? Do you believe the developers' industry supports people with mental health issues? cheers tc
A wonderful question - and timely too. I have started taking a huge interest in the space of self-care and mental well-being (and will actually be speaking about some of this at ElaConf this Saturday).
I am fairly sure that EVERYONE has worked alongside someone who has a mental wellness issue. They may just not have known about it because society stigmatizes it so. There is a broad spectrum of issues around mental health ranging from stress management, burnout and panic attacks, to severe depression and more.
I am not educated enough about this to hazard an opinion, especially on such an important topic. However I do think that the entire industry is beginning to understand this is an issue.
In fact World Mental Health Day - an initiative of the (World Health Organization)[who.int/mental_health/world-mental...] - explicitly calls out mental health in the workplace as the big challenge to focus on. That said, I am not sure how this translates into specific support or workplaces rules to support those needs.
I do believe this. That we all need to proactively focus on self-care and do what it takes (from meditation to medication) to make sure we can lead healthy and productive lives. And that we need to share our stories and our coping strategies, so that we destigmatize this topic for the next generation.
From meditation to medication, if you record it, than could you please share. Cheers
Secondly, thank you.
Any cool ideas for workforce retraining? Would love to hear anything you want to say about it. :)
Yes. My time is almost out so this is a short answer.
The key is to focus on the forgotten demographics and play to their strengths rather than chase after the shiny baubles of importing "rock star" engineers
Forgotten demographics:
Women who took time off to have families and want to come back to work. Take it from me there is no one more disciplined, motivated or organized than a mom who wants to get back to work but also has pragmatic understanding of the tradeoffs involved.
"Tech Lifers" who are laid off in the new economy. These are folks who have been in one company all their lives but not necessarily in software - they understand the priorities and process but just need the skills. They are amazingly focused when it comes to learning.
"Residents" of the location. These are folks who have a vested interest in staying at the current location (have homes, kids in school etc.) and are less of a job-change risk. They may be working in industries that are on the decline, may be under-employed, or they may not be working at all - investing in them makes sense because the biggest issue for many smaller regions (non urban/metro) is retaining workforces long enough to attract more investment.
Ideas:
More to say but another day
What are some innovations you'd like to see in education tech?
We need an entire day and separate AMA for this.
If you haven't watched it, see Ken Robinson's TED talk ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changin... - it changed my view a lot.
I am also the parent of an 8yo who is VERY hands-on about education and my day-to-day interactions with teachers, parents and other kids has influenced my thinking as well.
Basically it's not so much about innovation as it as about ACCESS and ADAPTATION.
Education is a RIGHT not an option. What can we do to make sure that every single person has access to a good education out of the box? What does that mean? My experience is that kids are hugely influenced by parental interests and influence. So I'd like to see solutions that involve the parent in the education process (without overwhelming them) - parents often use tech (iPads??) as babysitters. Instead, one idea that I had worked on (and hope to go back to) was to use mobile devices to create "teachable interventions" when parents and kids are spending time together. Having dinner in the restaurant? What's a good conversation to have with your child that increases their IQ about various things? At the grocery store? What's a good exercise to do for applied math?
Adaptation is also key. We have a one-size-fits-all classroom and that is unfair to both teachers and students because they are expected to handle all these impedance mismatches in limited school time. Instead I think there have been ideas like "Flipped Learning" that need more exploration. I'm personally invested in an idea that is combining voice UI with peer learning but I can't say more right now.
These are looking at kids. For education at high school, college and higher levels, I think the MOOC and online tools are great but they need to solve the huge problem of retention - what are the mechanisms to keep people falling off the grid? If we solve this issue, then I truly think we have a shot at extending these platforms to solve the access and adaptation problems as well. I have ideas - find me in NYC sometime and we can chat :-)
Context : I'm french so we don't have any patents. We can create anything new or not, be innovative with no money !
Question : You prefer the world with or without patents ?
Thanks !