In 2004, South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk shocked the world by announcing he had successfully cloned human embryos in his lab. Key parts of Hwang’s research were later shown to be phony, however, and the scientist was indicted in 2006 on “embezzlement and bioethics law violations linked to faked stem-cell research.” Surprisingly, the fraud isn’t stopping Australia from considering a patent of the technology:
Australia’s intellectual property office (IP Australia) said it was considering the patent request by Seoul National University based on Hwang’s falsified research. Hwang is listed as one of 18 inventors in the patent application.
IP Australia said the decision to grant a patent was based on whether the technology was new or involved an inventive step, not whether an invention performed as claims.
“During examination, IP Australia considered that information relating to the falsification of research results involving Dr. Hwang were related to issues of utility (usefulness) and not matter that could be objected to in examination,” David Johnson, Acting Commissioner of Patents, said in a statement.
So, patents are granted in Australia “based on whether the technology . . . involved an inventive step.” Faking one’s results certainly is “inventive,” but I’m not sure that’s what IP Australia has in mind.
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