If you think something is really, truly patentable you'd keep it under wraps until you did so, as far as possible.
What this encourages though is, "If you think something is maybe patentable, you can't ever tell anyone about it until the invention is complete and fully functional." Nifty side projects occasionally become a big deal. For precision hardware, development time is often 5-10 years. For young researchers, it's critical to be able to talk about whatever it is that you do.
Completely agreed that bait-and-switch is unethical and wrong.
If you think something is really, truly patentable you'd keep it under wraps until you did so, as far as possible.
What this encourages though is, "If you think something is maybe patentable, you can't ever tell anyone about it until the invention is complete and fully functional." Nifty side projects occasionally become a big deal. For precision hardware, development time is often 5-10 years. For young researchers, it's critical to be able to talk about whatever it is that you do.
Completely agreed that bait-and-switch is unethical and wrong.