IBM announced its new “innovation on demand” services last fall. Today Dean Takahashi writes (emphasis mine): “Rivals dismiss the effort as a way for IBM to use researchers to close deals with customers who will eventually be overwhelmed by armies of overpriced consultants. But Robert Morris, director of the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose says, '...More often than not, the contact changes the nature of the research being done so it's more on target.' … Guy Lohman, a database expert and Almaden lab researcher, said 'The interesting part is we get to see problems first hand. It's a great way to drive where our next generation of software should be going.' ''

In a story about Amazon’s bid for a Web-ad patent to cover a type of ad offering the company has never made available to its customers, I found this quote of interest from Internet analyst David Halprin (emphasis mine): "Now when people come up with new ideas, they're more apt to try to create a patent and wait for things to evolve. It may be something that they want to do or (that they want to) sell later." Hmmm.

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