Community Forum – Innovation Awards

Resource Type
Survey (Community Forum)
Author
Innovation Research Interchange
Topic
Open Innovation and Contests
Associated Event
Publication

Do you offer awards for innovation?

I am doing benchmarking to determine what types of awards are offered for innovation. We have expanded globally and I am also interested to learn how other global companies handle these awards.

  1. What kind of innovation awards do you have and what are the award amounts?
  2. How, if at all, do you vary the award amounts based on various country locations?

– Sue Flanigan, US Director of Human Resources, Rogers Corp.

Community Responses

Julie Strasemeier, Global R&D HR Systems Manager, Procter & Gamble​
Yes we do offer innovation awards via a trust fund a former CEO created for young technologists in R&D.  The number of awardees varies each year (5-10) and the dividends from the trust are evenly distributed to the winners ($8,000 – $12,000).   We also provide a crystal plaque with the monetary award and present it in front of our R&D organizations.  We do not vary the award amount by country. 

Jules Blake, IRI Emeritus, Former VP R&D, Colgate-Palmolive and Former President of IRI​
At Colgate-Palmolive, I started the President’s Award for Technical Achievement.  Th HR people would not let me give a cash award, so we settled on attendance at a scientific meeting anywhere in the world.  The people loved it and it was better than cash.  Later the company adopted it worldwide as the Chairman’s You Can Make a Difference Award and gave stock and a weekend visit to New York, theatre, dinner, etc. before the Annual Meeting where their work was presented. Later as a consultant at Martek Biosciences I started a similar award with cash and, like the Nobel, it was divided amongst the team.  All of these provided incentive as people vied for the award.  If you wish a fuller explanation feel free to call me.

Director, Global consumer products company​
We offer awards for innovation and this has proven to be a great way to recognize and celebrate R&D accomplishments.  The awards we have are designed to highlight priorities for the R&D organization.  In our business, this includes areas like creating consumer delight, creating winning technology, improving our innovation capability, etc.

We generally avoid monetary awards.  However, a past CEO provided an endowment to recognize young innovators and this is a part of our rewards program (same amount across countries).

Eric P. Wallis, Director of Marketing, Greene, Tweed & Company​
Yes, we have innovation awards. We have just implemented the program and it is taking off slowly. One area we are promoting is the internal communication so the whole organization can “see” the program. This is critical to change the culture.

  1. What kind of innovation awards do you have and what are the award amounts? We have 1 award but people can be nominated based on innovation ideas, innovation on process, and innovation for culture. 
  2. How, if at all, do you vary the award amounts based on various country locations? We have two amounts ($150 and $300) and it is based on the nominating manager’s suggestion and justification.

Luc Adriaenssens, SVP of Technology, CommScope (a leading telecom infrastructure provider)​
We only provide additional rewards/compensation for patents.

The IRI Community Forum posted a question on patent payments in August 2011.  I’ve updated my response to that and added information on payments in non-US countries.  Our primary R&D locations are in US, various countries in EU, Australia and China.  Note that the payment amounts were last updated in mid 2009 and have not been adjusted since then although wages have increased, especially in China.

We’ve spent considerable time optimizing our Patent Award system over the years.  Below is a summary of our current program, including specifics, rationale where relevant, and unintended consequences to watch out for:

  • We recognize inventors with cash award both upon filing and upon issuance.  We have found that this split approach is helpful to ensure all inventors are responsive to attorney reviews throughout the process.  Payment amounts vary by country the inventor resides in.  For US inventors, the payments for utility applications (not for provisionals) are:
    • Sole inventor:  $1500 upon filing +  $1500 upon issuance
    • Two inventors: $1000 upon filing + $1000 upon issuance – per inventor
    • Three or more:   $2250 upon filing + $2250 upon issuance – split between inventors
    • We have found that the above is a good balance between inclusion of multiple inventors on patents where increments to the invention are material and the unintended consequence of incentives.
    • Design patents pay half the above amounts.  No cash compensation is provided for continuations, divisionals, nor foreign counterparts.  Continuations-in-part are generally treated like new utility applications.
    • Contractors are also eligible for cash rewards at the BU management’s discretion (rationale varies by situation).
    • We closely scrutinize filings where inventors are a mix of managers and subordinates to ensure the managers’ contributions are significant as opposed to “riding along”.  Unfortunately, that level of scrutiny has been necessary in a few cases.  Just putting in and communicating controls like this tends to avoid the possibility of a problem.
    • Our legal department runs a list of planned patent payments on a semi-annual basis.  This list is reviewed with the patent liaisons (primary IP management person in the BU, usually the R&D director) in each business unit for accuracy.  We do find/correct errors during this review.  One area we are in the process of refining is the tie-in with payroll.  Currently, the payment shows up on the direct deposit paycheck summary with a cryptic code that is meaningless to the inventor.  Since patents generally issue many years after filing, the inventor often has no clue what the payment is for.  That causes extra investigation for many and is a lost opportunity to reinforce the intent of the program.  We are exploring whether our systems can add a reference number that has meaning to the inventor and alert the inventor beforehand of the coming pleasant surprise.   Some of the more prolific inventors track if/when they got their payment.   We have also considered making patent payments a separate physical check but concluded the cons exceed the pros.
    • We have no recognition of key milestones (such as 10th patent issued).  We do have a provision where our CEO can provide a one-time payment to particularly valuable patents, although as far as I know, we have never done that.  There are clearly pros and cons to communicating such a provision in terms of setting expectations.
    • We don’t provide compensation or special recognition for trademarks.
  • For inventors located in EU, the payments for utility applications are:
    • Sole inventor:  E825 upon filing +  E825 upon issuance
    • Two inventors: E1100 upon filing + E1100 upon issuance – per inventor
    • Three or more:   E1240 upon filing + E1240 upon issuance – split between inventors
  • For inventors located in Australia, the payments for utility applications are:
    • Sole inventor:  AUD1410 upon filing +  AUD1410 upon issuance
    • Two inventors: AUD1875 upon filing + AUD1875 upon issuance – per inventor
    • Three or more:   AUD2110 upon filing + AUD2110 upon issuance – split between inventors
  • For inventors located in China, the payments for utility applications are:
    • Sole inventor:  RMB2590 upon filing +  RMB2590 upon issuance
    • Two inventors: RMB3445 upon filing + RMB3445 upon issuance – per inventor
    • Three or more:   RMB3880 upon filing + RMB3880 upon issuance – split between inventors
  • For inventors in all other countries, the payments for utility applications are:
    • Sole inventor:  $380 upon filing +  $380 upon issuance
    • Two inventors: $505 upon filing + $505 upon issuance – per inventor
    • Three or more:   $570 upon filing + $570 upon issuance – split between inventors
  • We also recognize inventors upon filing with a certificate and upon issuance with a nice engraved plaque showing the front page of the patent.
    • Both are handed to inventors by either our CEO, COO, or CTO in person during a building-wide meeting at their location on a semi-annual basis (i.e. public recognition in front of their peers).    Note that we don’t give them a check at this meeting since sometimes inventor lists are controversial among peers (we rely on attorneys to determine inventorship using the standard legal test on whether at least one claim was added based on their contribution).  We do this during the day without spouses or significant others.  We’ve concluded that the public recognition in front of their peers is more impactful than a dinner with only patent recipients present.
    • We ensure each location takes a picture of inventor with the CxO and publish it in our monthly newsletter.  Based on click-through rates, it is one of the most popular articles.  That fact highlights the importance of the peer-recognition aspect.
    • Upon issuance, inventors also get a letter from the head of legal with copy to all up to our CEO congratulating them.  The main benefit of this impersonal communication is to alert the management chain of the issuance so they can follow up in person.  Pats-on-the-back are free and thus a great bang-for-the-buck investment.
  • Additional information:
    • We have a procedure where inventors make written patent proposals, which R&D department heads review to assess cost/benefit of protecting and agree on optimal timing of filing.  Such controls are essential to assure A) you don’t incent filing of junk in areas with less involved 1st line managers, or B) a long string of continuations (due to filing too early).

Hope that helps.  Please e-mail me directly if the above triggers follow-up questions.

Jay Otten, Manager, Technology & Innovation, BASF​
Yes. BASF SE has one award voted on by the board each year and it is a biggie. There are other smaller more local awards. There are occasional formal recognitions in BASF Corp for those awarded patents.

Gary Yezbick, VP Innovation & Sustainability, Masco Corporation​
Masco Corporation sponsors Innovation, New Product Development and New Process Development Awards on an annual basis.  Our business units complete a form to supply the requisite information that allows a team to determine whether to grant an award.  The awards are all non-monetary, in the form of an inscribed trophy and verbal recognition. 

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