The researchers discovered this scheme while monitoring Facebook and WhatsApp groups where companies sell fraudulent academic services. These spaces are already known for offering ghostwritten theses, fake conference presentations, and authorship slots on scientific papers. Among these familiar offerings appeared a new product: “UK design patents” with inventorship slots for sale.

The advertisements are brazen, listing design titles, processing times (under two weeks), and tiered pricing (”Applicant 1 + Inventor: ₹4,000, Applicant 2 + Inventor: ₹3,500”). But these aren’t patents. They are design registrations, which protect product appearances without the rigorous scrutiny for technical innovation and novelty required for patent approval.

The scheme exploits a simple loophole: India’s University Grants Commission awards more points toward promotion for international patents than for published research papers. Patents also boost institutional rankings through metrics like the National Institutional Ranking Framework. But there seems to be no one authenticating whether a claimed patent is actually a patent or just a design registration.

The companies saw a lucrative opportunity. Buy a UK design registration for around ₹5,000, sell multiple inventor spots at a markup, and process it within days instead of the years required for genuine patents. Since the UK Intellectual Property Office doesn’t check submissions for novelty or technical merit, companies can file nearly anything—original designs, crude renderings, or stolen models—and quickly obtain official registration numbers.

At least eight firms have pumped more than 3,000 registrations into the UK system (3.3% of all filings in two years). One firm alone recycled identical images in 28% of its submissions.

A “smart shoe” features nonsensical arrays of USB ports. A supposed AI-powered garbage bin is represented by a crude sketch. The same computer model appears five times as different “revolutionary” devices. Many designs are simply stolen from public repositories and given new, technical-sounding names with “AI” and “internet of things” catchphrases.

The scheme exploits a regulatory blind spot. The UK Intellectual Property Office considers design rights legitimately tradeable assets and won’t comment on other countries’ academic policies. Indian institutions rarely verify patent claims. Neither side can address the problem alone.

Unlike retractable journal papers or ignorable conference proceedings, these are permanent government records. They provide official documentation of innovation where none exists, clog the registry for legitimate innovators, and leave participating academics vulnerable to blackmail—much like those who buy fake degrees from diploma mills.

This practice thrives within India’s complex research ecosystem. While the country’s premier institutions, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Science, and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research produce world-class research across multiple disciplines, pressure to meet research metrics in many smaller colleges and universities creates an environment where shortcuts become attractive.

What we’re seeing is a collision between two broken systems: the business of academic fraud and the low-barrier nature of certain intellectual property protections. Each approved design reinforces an illusion of achievement that benefits companies selling credentials and academics seeking advancement while undermining both academic integrity and intellectual property systems.

The solution requires more than exposing bad actors. Academic institutions need better verification of patent claims and reconsideration of how intellectual property counts toward promotion. Intellectual property offices could introduce safeguards against mass registration abuse, like flagging repeated image use or suspicious numbers of co-applicants.

But the broader challenge remains. As long as institutions prioritise counting metrics over evaluating actual contributions, these schemes will keep evolving because the financial and academic incentives to exploit the system will be too profitable for some to resist. The question isn’t whether such exploitation will occur, but where it will surface next.

---

Anirban Mahapatra is a scientist and author, most recently of the popular science book, When the Drugs Don’t Work: The Hidden Pandemic That Could End Medicine. The views expressed are personal.