Ha, this is true! (I know we talked about it recently, but I can't find it either.) I would say that the program at Sun definitely incentivized filing patents, but it was always perverse: when it paid out for invention disclosures, people did a bunch of bad invention disclosures; when it became much more heavily backloaded to reward granted patents, it rewarded people so long after the fact as to be meaningless. (But it did allow us to buy some good Amish furniture that I do indeed still have!) It's clear from the article that IBM went on a similar journey, settling on this goofy innovation frequent flyer system?!
All of that said, scrapping the program is probably the right decision: especially with patent law tracking the way it has (namely, making it harder for patent trolls), there has been less of an imperative around patents -- and paying out for patent-related work conflates all innovation with patentability, which is a mistake in my opinion. I have not (and would not) establish an incentive program around patents: it's great to reward innovation, but cash bonuses for patents isn't it -- however well-crafted the resulting furniture may be. ;)
All of that said, scrapping the program is probably the right decision: especially with patent law tracking the way it has (namely, making it harder for patent trolls), there has been less of an imperative around patents -- and paying out for patent-related work conflates all innovation with patentability, which is a mistake in my opinion. I have not (and would not) establish an incentive program around patents: it's great to reward innovation, but cash bonuses for patents isn't it -- however well-crafted the resulting furniture may be. ;)