• Synopsis

    The Jobs Foundation of California is dedicated to creating valuable intellectual works by running competitions, series that deliver open source public works and first-to-market teams.  

    The series have increasing payouts, ending when the winner refuses the payout.

    Interim award ceremonies help the teams to remix and hybridize.

    The series will include awards for patent searches, usually in the first competition of the series. In the event of disputes with patent holders, JFC will appoint mediators.

    As a public foundation, JFC will operate with unprecedented transparency and accountability.

    When cash awards are refused in favor of venture funding, the value of the winning IP is likely greater than the purse, evidence JFC is more productive than the private sector.

    JFC aims to transform whole industries. The size of the markets that JFC creates will also demonstrate JFC’s effectiveness. 

    The competition designers and judges may join the resulting startups and JFC’s capital fund, ME, may invest.

    JFC will contain overhead by keeping the core staff small, responsible only for setting up competitions with designers and judges who disband when each series ends.

    JFC aims to outperform all other foundations on effectiveness measures, such as the ratio of investment relative to the value of markets created, and JFC will control the mark of excellence, a four-sided symmetric logo that reads WE from one side and ME from the other. 

FAQs

How is a JFC competition created ?
JFC’s executive staff will appoint Competition Design Committees composed of domain experts, representative users, and an expert in the relevant patent case law.

What does a Competition Design Committee (CDC) do ?
A CDC sets the criteria for winning competitions and appoints a judge and jury to select winners. 

What are the competitions ?
Competitions have objectives and prize monies for first-past-the-post or best work submitted by a deadline.

What is a JFC series ?
Each competition is a series, usually with successively larger awards.

Will JFC place functional products, designs, and processes in the public domain in exchange for prize money ?

Yes, and if a winner refuses the purse, it will be offered to the runners-up. The series may continue without the winning team.

Why would a winning team refuse the cash award ?

Investors want to see a moat protecting the business from competitors, including valuable utility, not just design, patents.

Can contributors be members of competing teams ?

Yes, and the team members must be free to mingle at the awards ceremonies.

Can patented work be included in team submissions ?

Yes. Winners may include filed and issued patent holders who have settled on the value of their patent(s).

What are the other benefits to competitors ?

All of the winning team members will be interviewed during publicized award ceremonies.

Will patent searching be compensated ?

There may be competitions to search the patent databases, and JFC may do patent searches. Ideas are easy; execution is hard. Patents are mainly a tax on innovation. While the original goal of patents was to encourage innovation, the actual effect is to retard the adoption of new products. Lawyers spend 20 years arguing over things engineers think up in 20 seconds.

May competitors receive stipends ?

Yes. 

Can patent infringement be claimed to invalidate an entry ?

Yes. A hold will be declared after the cash prize winner is declared to allow challenges such as patent infringement and theft of IP from a rival. During this period, the submission will be available to all competitors for inspection under NDA. A new and independent panel of judges will hear motions to disqualify, and the original judges will hear appeals.

Will patents be held by JFC ?

JFC will acquire patents in order to make them available to use and modify at no cost.

Will there be competitions for students, interns, and apprentices ? 

The first round(s) of competition may be at this level. It can serve to source ideas that are “obvious to those skilled in the art” and breakthroughs that are not.

How will JFC avoid self-dealing and featherbedding ?

JFC will keep as few permanent staff members as possible. The ad hoc Competition Design Committees (CDCs) will do almost all the work.

Why does JFC’s logo read WE from one side and ME from the other ? 

The WE represents the collective spirit of a 501(c)3, a non-profit for public benefit. “ME,” to be found under McHenry Enterprises, will run JFC's capital account. 

What led to JFC ? History ?

JFC traces to Vera Lounsbery’s attempt to encourage progress by instituting the Richard Lounsbery Prize, a French-American medical research award now under a family foundation, RLounsbery.org. Her younger family wanted to provide more explicit direction and motivation. 

Bruce McHenry was a director of the family foundation from 1993 to 2003. He incorporated the Key Prize Foundation in 2010 and obtained IRS 501(c)3 non-profit status for the same mission. KeyPrize.org and jfc.ME.COM redirect to meJFC.ORG. JFC.org is an unrelated church.

Will there be ice cream at the award ceremonies ?
No, there will be a dark purple vegan sorbet. There will be gelato, too, but it won’t be regular ice cream. It will be intense vanilla, not very sweet, and made only with a good number of egg yolks, and cream exclusively from grass-fed cows, with just a little honey. The mix-ins will be sweet though: cranberries, salted sugar-buttered pecans, almonds with dark chocolate covering, some rum, and, when available, dark chocolate-covered fresh sweet cherries, with their pits.

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