Nokia knows that good ideas are slipping through the cracks the world over, and so it offers "Invent With Nokia"-a secure way for people to submit ideas Nokia will consider.
An evolving Nokia knows that the world is full of creative
people with smart ideas-and it's opening its doors to them. The latest
new thing from the Stephen Elop-led Nokia is
"Invent With Nokia"-an initiative inviting people to submit ideas that Nokia will pay for if
they decide to use them.
The Nokia Conversations blog explains:
Having a great idea is one thing, but having that
idea turned into a reality is often much more difficult, costly and time
consuming and so ideas rarely come to fruition. What if you had a great idea
for a future device, or a radical new feature or service? Nokia has today
launched a new program that allows you to submit your ideas.
Invent With Nokia is now open for ideas.
If you have a genuinely useful and innovative idea
that could be turned into a product or service by Nokia-whether or not you are
a full time inventor-imagine the feeling of having your vision realised by a
company such as Nokia that can make it happen.
To submit an idea, participants will need to register
through the site and agree not to share the idea with anyone else for four
months. If Nokia decides not to pursue the idea, they'll let the inventor know
within four months, and the inventor has the same rights to the idea that they
did before submitting them. If Nokia does devise to pursue the idea, it has the
right to apply for a patent, and the inventor will be paid-or
"rewarded."
Just how generously isn't so clear.
"Nokia's business is very diverse, and the inventions
we review are similarly broad. Whilst we take a common approach to valuing and
rewarding our partners, there will be some variability," the Invent With
Nokia site explains. "In principle you will be eligible for an award if we
apply for a patent based on your invention. You may be eligible for a further
award depending on the success of the product and the level of award you choose
at the patent application stage."
And remember, money isn't everything-there's fame, too! In
addition to monetarily rewarding good ideas, "you'll also take your place
in a hall of fame," states the May 19 blog post, "giving you public
recognition for your invention so everybody will know who you are."
Nokia's CEO Elop, in a
video on the Invent With Nokia site, speaks to his pre-CEO roots. "As an
engineer, I understand the importance of innovative ideas and intellectual
property," he says. "As a result, we have insured that Invent With
Nokia is a secure environment in which you can safely present your concepts to
us. I encourage you to consider sharing your creative work and joining us in
the amazing future of mobility."
Since becoming CEO in September
2010, Elop's other big ideas to help reverse the phone maker's slipping
market share have been to
switch
Nokia's focus from the
fast-losing-friends Symbian OS to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform; to
outsource Symbian responsibilities to Accenture; to lay off 4,000 employees and shift 3,000 others
to Accenture; and, most recently, to rebrand
Ovi services as straight-up Nokia services.
"These last few years, and moving forward," Nokia Executive Vice President and CMO Jerri DeVard said in a May 16
statement about the Ovi phase-out, "our mission remains unchanged: we will
continue our work to deliver compelling, unified mobile service offerings and
next-generation, disruptive
technologies."
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