Plagiarism hinders scientific progress

A post at dw titled Why painstaking detective work beats computer automation in the hunt for plagiarism concerning the copying allegations against German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen contains the text:


VroniPlag was set up by Martin Heidingsfelder and is maintained by volunteers, who include, says the website, "the young and the old, men and women, scientists and non-scientists."

(...)
Their motivation is simple. Plagiarism, says a detailed comment on the community website, hinders scientific progress.




Clearly, simply copying the work of others does not advance scientific progress. Taking credit for the work of others is an additional problem. But, relevant to arguments of some patent reformers, ignoring the work of others (and re-inventing the wheel) does not advance scientific progress either.


** Of wheel re-invention, recall the IPBiz post Unintentional plagiarism, again with text


In the realm of patent, of course, there is no independent creation defense. If one falls within
the scope of a claim, one infringes, whether or not one knows about the claim.
In theory, that encourages people to know the prior art and not waste time re-inventing the wheel.
And recall the South Park episode relating to "the Simpsons already did it."

As to the classic demonstration, patent law rewards people for writing down their inventions
in timely fashion, so one does not have fuzziness of who invented what when. And, did that
classic experiment prove the unintentional character? Does it comment on the Poshard matter?



Of spats about inventorship, take a good look the CAFC Shukh case of 2 Oct 2015:

Dr. Shukh’s manager also indicated that
Dr. Shukh demonstrated “unsatisfactory” teamwork
skills, explaining that he “is often insistent on getting
appropriate or complete credit for his work” and that he
“repeatedly accused” Seagate workers of “stealing his
work.” J.A. 5223;

**See also the post at ScienceInsider

German defense minister accused of plagiarism