Dr. Norm Matloff writes:
Just when you had thought you'd heard everything—IBM has filed a patent on methods to optimize offshoring.Norm
IBM files for patent on offshoring jobs Seeks to protect tax incentivesChristine Young By Christine Young Times Herald-Record Posted: March 30, 2009
As IBM was firing thousands of American workers last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published Big Blue's application to copyright a computerized system that calculates how to offshore jobs while maximizing government tax breaks. [METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR STRATEGIC GLOBAL RESOURCE SOURCING, March 30 2009.]
In their application to patent a "method and system for strategic global resource sourcing," five Hudson Valley IBMers describe how it weighs such plans as "50 percent of resources in China by 2010," against such factors as labor costs, infrastructure and the "minimum head count to qualify for incentives."
