False.
http://web.mit.edu/tlo/www/com...

"The U.S. patent law system is among the most lenient in the world with regards to prior disclosure of your invention. It allows you to publish your invention or offer it for sale prior to filing a patent application, provided that you file your patent application within one year of the publication or offer for sale."

I have 3 patents to my name.

While I list them on my resume as part of my accomplishments, I have never offered them, for free, or for a licensing fee, to a prospective employer. In my opinion, their value is in showing your employer that you have skills, not as some 'package deal' where one buys you, and gets the tech for free.

Absolutely agree.
Back when I worked in the cards technology department at Citi, Mitchell Habib implemented a similar system when he took the CIO position. I had a new job within 2 weeks. Not because I felt like I was a bottom performer. In fact, I was told that I was a top performer, and they would often bring me in on projects that were lagging, in order to get things done on time. But I absolutely despise these kinds of systems, and I could foresee the huge morale hit that would take place when it was implemented. I wasn't the only top-tier guy that left...a small handful of us who had been around the block a few times saw what lay ahead and went on to greener pastures.

And if you don't know how things shook out with Mitchell Habib and Citi, take a look here.
http://www.thereblogging.com/ThereBlogging/19D0F00D-C731-4B7E-B1D5-21455389D7EF.html

I used to work for CitiBank, and the client-side software used by their customer service reps to service credit card accounts was thick-client VB software (though the other tiers of the arrangement were not). I don't know if it's still VB based, since the company was still kicking around the idea of moving to a new platform when I left them a couple years ago.

The app was comprised of hundreds of screens dealing with everything from lost/stolen cards to rewards redemption to credit line increases, as well as general service questions. 99% of a customer service rep needed to do for a customer could be done with this software, and in an industry where seconds of lost productivity by customer service reps equates to millions of dollars lost, it performed just fine.

I also used to work for the MHA group, which recently merged with AMN Healthcare, making it one of the largest physician & nurse staffing companies in the country. It's entire business software suite, from invoicing to accounting to payroll to staffing was handled by software written in-house in VB.

I once wrote an EBSDIC to ASCII converter in VB to convert Texas Railroad Commission files to a format we could use, because a contract programmer had written one in C++ that didn't work--it translated text fine, but it didn't account for the EBCDIC Packed Numeric format. The version I wrote in VB was faster, and had GUI such as progress bars, etc. Granted, the C++ program could have been optimized and improved, but the point is ultimately that VB can compete on many levels with other programming languages.

Like martial arts, the ultimate value of a programming language must be judged by what a good programmer can do with it. Unfortunately, VB is so simple, it's easy for bad programmers to fake it just enough to get hired.

Just because it has the word "basic" in the name doesn't make VB unsuitable for applications.