Patent ID: 7702516

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for monitoring a company inventor recognition program, the computer-implemented method comprising: accessing, by a processor, an award tracking database containing a plurality of information about an inventor, the inventor's position in an organizational chart, a list of dockets for patent applications and patents of the inventor, a list of payable events, wherein the inventor is to receive a payment for each of the payable events, and an indication when the payment to the inventor has been authorized by a manager; responsive to finding, by the processor, an indication that a payable event has occurred but no indication that the payment has been authorized, sending, by the processor, the manager a message requesting an authorization for the payment; responsive to sending the manager the message, and responsive to a first determination that a first time period has elapsed since the email was sent to the manager, determining, by the processor, whether the indication that the payment has been authorized is present in the award tracking database; responsive to a second determination, by the processor, that the indication that the payment has been authorized by the manager is not present in the awards tracking database, updating, by the processor, a status of a docket item associated with the payment in the awards database and sending, by the processor, the manager an email adapted to allow the manager to authorize the payment directly from the email without the manager having to manually open another application.