(20 Feb 2025) Shady companies have long given unscrupulous scientists the opportunity to buy authorship of papers—a form of academic fraud. But according to a draft paper posted online today and scheduled to appear in the International Journal for Educational Integrity, these outfits have now diversified into selling intellectual property rights, too.
Over the past 2 years, these firms have registered thousands of bizarre designs for medical equipment and other devices with the U.K.’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO), listing scientists as the owners of the designs for a fee. The companies target researchers in countries including India and Pakistan, where universities reward researchers who patent inventions with career advancement and sometimes bonuses.
The finding is “bonkers” says Emily Hudson, an intellectual property academic at the University of Oxford who was not involved with the research. The practice exploits ignorance about intellectual property systems, she says: The U.K., like many countries, allows artists and others to protect their designs relatively cheaply and easily, without the arduous and expensive process of obtaining a formal patent. It is these design registrations, not patents, that companies are selling.
Find out more here.
