Sir

Your timely News story “Is India's 'patent factory' squandering funds?” (Nature 442, 120; 2006) could open a Pandora's box about the prevailing state of affairs in academic research institutions in the developing world. Obtaining a US patent, especially on plant varieties, is an easy alternative to publishing in peer-reviewed journals for high-profile scientists, because money for filing patents is easily available, with no questions asked about the financial viability of the discovery.

The bare truth is that one can pick any vegetatively propagated plant where no prior patent exists, define its identification characteristics and potential benefits for cultivation, pay a fee to the US Patent and Trademark Office and obtain a patent number for subsequent professional rewards — with no demonstrable benefit to biology.

One of the examples cited in your News story, a cow-urine distillate to enhance the activity of antibiotics (US patent 6410059), has been criticized for not having been through scientific scrutiny (see, for example, a report in The Hindu newspaper at http://www.hinduonnet.com/seta/2002/09/19/stories/2002091900150300.htm). The claim has never been substantiated by peer-reviewed publications.

This kind of activity, which is widespread, diverts millions of dollars from research into filing patents. The publicly funded scientific institutions concerned should ignore such CV-enhancing practices in favour of published research.