[nojvek]

I am an X-Microsoft employee. Pre-Nadella era, most teams had a patent budget. People would file patents for all sorts of reasons. The game was who can get away with vague-ish patents and collect the most cubes. There was a cube you got per patent.

Needless to say the number of cubes someone had, the more clout they had and it became a dick measuring contest.

There are VPs and distinguished engineers with 100s of cubes.