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 of competitive productivity.
JFC aims to transform whole industries by fostering groundbreaking ideas through competitive challenges that generate free public works and launch top-tier start-ups. Our innovative approach empowers creators and entrepreneurs to redefine markets, driving meaningful change on a global scale. 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 in effectiveness measures, such as the ratio of investment to the value of markets created. JFC will control the mark of excellence, a four-sided symmetric logo that reads ME and WE.
Get Involved
Enter a Series
Propose a Series
Nominate a Director
FAQs
How does JFC create competitions?
JFC’s executive staff appoints users and domain experts to a Competition Design Committee.
What does a Competition Design Committee (CDC) do?
A CDC sets criteria for winning competitions and appoints a judge to select winners.
Who selects the jurors?
The competitors select jurors from the CDC.
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 with successively larger awards.
Will JFC place functional designs 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.
Why would a winning team refuse the cash award?
Investors need moats protecting the business from competitors such as utility patents.
May a series continue after a winner refuses the purse?
Yes.
Can contributors be members of competing teams?
Yes, and the team members will mingle at the awards ceremonies.
Can patented work be included in team submissions?
Yes. Winners may have to include filed and issued patent holders.
What are the other benefits to competitors?
Publicity
Will patent searching be compensated?
There will be competitions to search the patent databases, and JFC may do patent searches.
Do competitors receive stipends?
They may.
Can patent infringement be claimed to invalidate an entry?
Yes. A hold will be declared after the cash prize winner is announced to allow challenges, such as patent infringement and theft of intellectual property from a rival. During this period, the submission will be available to all competitors for inspection under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
A new and independent panel of judges will hear motions to disqualify. JFC’s judges will hear appeals and provide expert testimony should it be needed in a court of law.
Will patents be held by JFC?
JFC will acquire patents only to make them available at no cost.
Will there be competitions for students, interns, and apprentices?
The first round(s) of competition will have the smallest purse, and serve as a source of ideas that are “obvious to those skilled in the art” and, sometimes, 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?
WE represents the collective spirit of a 501(c)3, a non-profit for public benefit. ME, aka McHenry Enterprises, will run JFC's capital account.
What led to JFC?
JFC traces to Vera Lounsbery’s attempt to accelerate medical progress by instituting the Richard Lounsbery Prize, a French-American medical research award. Her younger family wanted to provide more explicit direction and motivation.
Bruce McHenry was a director of RLF, a family foundation, from 1993 to 2003.
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, with a vanilla flavor that is not overly sweet, and made with a generous number of egg yolks, as well as cream exclusively from grass-fed Swiss and Irish cows, with just a hint of honey. The mix-ins will be sweet: cranberries, salted sugar-buttered pecans, almonds with dark chocolate covering, some rum, and, when available, dark chocolate-covered fresh sweet cherries, with pits.