Etiquette for attribution when applying concepts in industry I work as a software developer in industry, but I like to read various academic papers to get exposure to ideas that may benefit my work.  I may not apply exactly the technique described in a single paper, but my work is certainly influenced by the ideas I've encountered.  My question, though, is what is the proper way to provide attribution for the papers that have influenced my work?

If the product of my work were an academic paper, the rules would be quite clear, but here I'm making a product that is ultimately my employer's IP, for which the implementation details may even be considered trade secrets.  I'm struggling to find the proper ethical reconciliation between my professional obligations and the spirit of academia that favors free dissemination of knowledge in the hope that it encourages more of the same in return.  I don't want to steal anyone's work, but neither do I want to shut myself off from valuable lines of thought.
You don't need to do anything. Academic journals are published for the betterment of mankind. If you acquired said articles legally, then you are entitled to use their contents within your corporation as you see fit as long as you do not directly copy and distribute text or software code that is under copyright without a license. If you reimplement an algorithm described in a paper, you are fine. The only problem may come if you try to implement something covered under a patent (like the RSA patent), but these kinds of things are not typically published in journals these days.

There are more reasons that academic publish than encouraging more published work. When I publish, I hope that my ideas are used by any and all to fulfill their own goals. When I want specific kinds of returns on my work, I will choose other avenues of dissemination than publishing in conferences and journals. 

There's no ethical issue here, in my opinion.