Chinese scientists row over long-sought protein that senses magnetism | Hacker News Reader

Chinese scientists row over long-sought protein that senses magnetism

nature.com

49 pointsClintEhrlich8 comments

"Zhang [...] says that he was justified in publishing the results because Xie’s work was merely biochemical identification, whereas he had the idea of using magnetic fields and the protein to control cells. Xie says that this idea is obvious, and that he included it in a patent he applied for last year."

You have to love that sentence:

"The idea was obvious - I included it in my patent application!"

Yes, he included it in his patent application. He didn't say that the idea was the novel part of his patent application.

I get that, I can read, and I have taken special care to include that word in my shortened version, as you can see.

It's still funny, though!

Wherefrom the need to even include obvious uses in a patent application? It must obviously make some kind of difference if you do or don't! Think about that.

Have you ever filed a patent? Gone through the whole process from end to end? Been involved with patent litigation? These things make huge differences. Basically every patent that involves a computer in some way has a big section at the beginning describing a computer and the obvious uses. THis is because case law rules, and somebody once lost a patent case because they left out some obvious thing.

to be honest, you only want to patent something quickly it is obvious. Otherwise, you will do much better keep it as trade secrets.

It is notable that the 'original author's' paper was still in review. And that the review started, by a big-name journal, in Dec. 2014 - over 9 months ago. While the newer paper was reviewed and published, by a no-name journal, in under a week. The discrepancy is huge - professionally, and scientifically. There is no reason a discovery needs a year in review - that is simply laziness on the part of the big prestigious journal. And that they're now being scooped by a competitor puts them in a poor light. This seems as much about the various journals as it is about the authors, and the universities.

The new journal eLife is a wonderful happy medium - month-long high-quality reviews for a high-quality paper.

Someone must put his authority and prestige under test when reviewing a paper. Good editors will prefer delay over errors. As such, people will sometimes put some papers under microscope before signing them on.

The one that backs down can be the Chinese Walter White in a few years.

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