When a "Don't do it!" won't suffice.

In another exquisite use of our patent system, IBM has filed a patent application for a "Methodology and process for suppressing de-focusing activities during selective scheduled meetings."
By accepting an invitation for a 'distraction-free' meeting, the attendee also agrees to allow the meeting organizer to disable certain computing activities on the attendees computer.
It's the equivalent of, instead of telling your kid that he can't have friends ride with him in the car on Saturday night, you develop a program that remotely enables an ejection mechanism in the rear and passenger seats. The system is armed when you hand the keys to the kid.
The phrase 'Topless Meetings' made Time Magazine's 2008 top 10 buzzword. It means that the boss calls a meeting and tells the attendees to leave their laptops in the office.
Let's see, if I was a manager in a company that was trying to contain costs, which would I do?

1. Tell people not to bring their laptops to a meeting.
   
2. Dispatch engineers to develop a program that would disable the computers of attendees and then dispatch a team of lawyers to file a patent application, waiting the average 24 months for a patent to be approved, if it's approved on the first try.
   (Oh, and most companies pay a bonus to employees whose inventions are patented.)
   

United States Patent Application: 0090063996

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