I used to work for a company that did this, it was $500 in 1991. I think its a really bad idea, actually. There was a ton of effort spent by engineers trying to get patents on useless stuff so the engineers could have another plaque on the wall and $500. I swear some of them made it their primary career focus. That is not valuable to the company and is a colossal waste of engineering time.

In my opinion, the decison to patent is a strategic business decision and not an engineering decision. Engineers should not be incented to obtain patents. Marketing, legal and strategic management issues determine whether something should be patented. Patents are an extremely poor measure of an engineer's contribution.

The patentability of an artifact is not a measure of its usefulness or the value of the engineer who designed it. Awards and plaques for patents server to stroke the egos of (in many cases poor) engineers rather than to reward excellent work.

On the other hand, recognizing an engineer for reducing warranty claims, decreasing manufacturing costs, gaining a major customer commitment, or expanding markets is something that should be done but is almost never considered.

FWIW,

Jim