The Hindu Business Line : IBM withdraws ‘outsourcing of services’ patent application

Last September, IBM made public more than 100 patents that describe methods of doing business. It promised to only patent inventions with “technical merit”.

T.E. Raja Simhan

Chennai, Oct. 9 International Business Machines Corporation withdrew its application for patent of ‘outsourcing of services’ (for software) that covers analysing workflows, skills and economic costs, and sending jobs to cheaper countries, including India.

Last year, the $91-billion American IT major filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for ‘outsourcing of services’.

It said the work involved “services that are performed by those other than employees within the subject company utilising the present invention (of IBM). Outsourcing is often performed in countries where cheaper labour prices and/or cheaper materials are available,” the application available on the US Patent and Trademark Office Web site said.

However, last week the Big Blue withdrew its patent and this information appeared on the blog of Mr Bob Sutor, Vice-President, Open Source and Standards, IBM.

‘Technical merit’

Last September, IBM made public more than 100 patents that describe methods of doing business. It promised to only patent inventions with “technical merit”.

The outsourcing patent was recorded on the Web site of the US Patent and Trademark Office on July 12 this year.

Mr Sutor in his blog said the application was filed eight months before the new policy took effect. “Had the policy been in place at the time, IBM would not have filed the application. We are glad the community pointed this application out so IBM could take swift action,” he said.

When asked for comments on IBM’s outsourcing patent, Mr Ravi Viswanathan, Head of Chennai Operations, Tata Consultancy Services, “We were aware of the application, but it would not overly concern us. However, we do not know how such a thing can be patented.”

In-house services

IBM in its patent application said outsourcing could also include domestic services performed by others at a lower cost to the subject company. ‘In-house’ services are services performed by or directly under the direction of the subject company itself.

‘In-house’ services are generally reserved for services that have a high degree of complexity or other various attributes. One of the advantages of the present ‘invention’ (of IBM) is that various service types are readily recognised, broken down into individual tasks, and are analysed in detail for a determination of sourcing designation.

In January 2006, the US Patent and Trademark Office reported that IBM earned more patents than any other company for the 13th consecutive year. In 2005, IBM earned 2,941 patents — 1,100 more patents than any other company.

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