Why can’t you get another research related job in industry? It would look good on your CV to have continuous industry positions rather than job hopping between industry and academia if industry is where you want to be

Just as you did your research for your PhD, do your research on research commercialisation. There are many articles out there to help you. Far better than a random stranger. Eg https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d920c07f-9045-46a9-a73c-b3284e7d19d4

I don’t understand your university processes. Each uni works differently. Typically if the uni files the patent, they are the owner. Will they honour and treat the inventors named on the patent properly? That is up to your negotiation with them and your uni policy..can they leave people out or give very little commercial benefit to any of the inventors? Maybe.

But if your uni is a good one with good tech transfer office and solid research and business plan for the intellectual property in the patent, these are good things. I highly doubt you know what to do with the patent and how to commercialise it anyway, so they could handle these for you. The 12 months after the filing of a patent is important and do you know what to do during this time?

If your question is legally can you file a patent without your supervisors, if you are sure they are not inventors, check your uni policy. can they challenge? Possibly. You could call for an external independent inventorship determination by external patent attorneys. If your uni policy allows, Could you file as patent inventor and owner and then license back to your uni for negotiated future revenue? Talk to your lawyer. Know that you are burning all relationship bridges with uni and supervisors.

I suggest you talk deeply to your lawyer rather than ask a random stranger. Good luck

Have you been conferred your PhD yet? I hope so

You talk about respecting your supervisor and University. You wanted gift them inventorship and authorship to maintain a good relationship but not the commercial benefits. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. This relationship as far as I can tell is gone. They are trying to force and grab as much as they can out of you.

There is no 50% ownership in a patent, only 100%. Once a person/organisation is named an inventor and the patent is granted later, they are a full owner of the patent and may do as they see fit with the invention. Patent filing, the first step is easy and cheap. The high costs are the next stages after that including PCT and entering into the different countries in the years to come. One could file a patent and then later allow it to lapse but that will mean you have no patent protection.

Regarding commercial benefits, if the patent is used in commercialisation, all patent inventors and contributors should be remunerated. How much, there should be another contract for that and up for negotiation between all patent owners.

My question to you is why do you want the patent for? Ego? Setting up your own business? Licensing (selling rights) to another company for fee? Depending on your answer, you formulate your own strategy. Talk to your lawyer.

Another matter, why do your supervisor want the patent? Is it for ego, so they can use it for a promotion later on? Do they even have a business plan to further develop the R&D and commercialise? Many times you see researchers file patents to soothe their ego because they want to say they hold patents. Universities want to report they have X patent number to help ranking. But don’t do anything with it.

Following the definition of an inventor, no your supervisor does not qualify as one. Being a supervisor does not automatically mean being an inventor. No, a university cannot force you to “gift” inventorship.

I don’t understand your situation but let me explain the rules on patent and commercialisation.

Patent inventors are those who come up with the idea and carry out experiments or generate data that enable the invention. Who funds the research is irrelevant. You can’t gift someone inventorship. If a person who did not contribute was named incorrectly as an inventor, the patent can be challenged. The tech transfer office can call for an inventorship determination by external patent attorney if there is dispute.

If someone is an inventor, then there is expectation that if the invention is commercialised they will receive commercial revenue proportionate to the amount of contributions.

Regarding student IP, that may be different in different uni or even countries. The policy of the uni that I was part of stated that the IP generated during a PhD project generally is owned by the student unless the defining concept/idea and enabling data came was jointed created by the student and others.

Typically, if you created the IP while you are employed at a university, your IP is owned by the university.

If there is royalty from commercial activity, some cost of commercialisation will be taken out and the remaining will be distributed in a apportioned rate between all the IP inventors and contributors. Generally, the IP inventors will be those named in a patent to protect the IP.

There will be a policy on the uni website will details all matters on IP. Have a read.

You are feeling so conflicted about accepting this offer because your heart recognises the many red flags in the PhD project and supervisors. Supervisors with absolutely no experience and knowledge in the field of your PhD is a recipe for disaster. I have never seen any happy, successful PhD project coming out of the situation unless new supervisors who are experts in the field are brought in later.

It's hard as an international student to obtain full scholarship. If you accept this scholarship, is it possible to change to another PhD project with a supervisor that you like later on? This approach will burn many bridges and is potentially risky. Another approach is to work as a technician and wait for PhD opportunity in that academic group. Yet another is to apply for an industry job and ask for sponsored PhD to upskill after 1-2 years.

Sorry to hear this.

I think you may be able to challenge on the grounds of deviation from standard procedure. Why two vivas? Was your examiner bias? Did your supervisor give sufficient supervision? Can you chat with your students union about this?

Have a look at the posts of faded07 who had an external examiner from hell and how he/she fought against it and won. https://www.postgraduateforum.com/faded07-profile

Yes, you have described an academic day to day. Read and write papers, apply for grants, lecture and supervise students, all under a low pay with very little career progression towards the elusive tenure.

You have spent many years studying. Now you have to work and earn an income. There is a transition between study and work, and it may come with work deadline and pressure to hit your KPI. If you do not like academia, maybe explore something else then. Medical writing, science communication are all possible career paths if you like writing

I would suggest a different approach. Get a job with a major company, work there as an industry researcher for 1-2 years and then ask for them to sponsor you to further your study.

That way you have work experience and may have the opportunity to do a PhD and still have a job to return to at the end of your study. Plus, you may have a better idea of what PhD project to work on with industry input.

I think you will find that a PhD is less appreciated outside of academia.

However, you can definitely find a career path beyond academia. You may be reporting to a Bsc or MSc holder.

You can check out articles such as https://cheekyscientist.com/top-10-list-of-alternative-careers-for-phd-science-graduates/ for ideas on what else is out there. You don't need to join Cheeky Scientist to read their other articles. Until you narrowed down on the type of role you want, you won't be able to do a good search on job sites.

Your current Prof's hands off attitude is the norm. As a postdoc, you are expected to be a completely independent researcher with little input from the Prof. You propose ideas, carry out the study and publish, using the brand name prof to ensure a smoother publication process. With more publications, you apply for grants after grants and repeat the cycle until you hopefully get tenured. The prof is usually very busy with management to be bothered by actual technical science.

Hands on prof who actually cares about intellectual discussions and professional dev of postdocs is exceptionally rare. Your imposter syndrome may be masking a far more important matter - your emotional and professional needs are not being met.

Unfortunately this toxic work environment is prevalent in academia. Have a think if this lab and importantly if this career path is right for you. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind to suit your current needs and I think mental health is important.

Tough luck. Your problematic examiner is good friends with your second supervisor. The only way to remove this problematic person would be for both your first and second supervisor to agree to the changing of examiner, citing conflict. Your second supervisor would likely rather you fail than destroy his current relationship with this problematic person.

So, you have two options. Try talking to both your supervisors to change the examiner. Most likely will not get through.

Second and best way in my opinion is the softer approach. Give the problematic person all that he wants and get this over and done with. If he is as close to your second supervisor as you said, he probably only wants to soothe his bruised ego when you didn't cite him but will likely still let you pass after giving you a really hard time.

Found a paper that is pretty depressing.

...this study provides evidence of the negative influence of over-education on wages (i.e., the over-education wage penalty) once potential sources of bias are adequately considered. While the current analysis is focused on one country, South Korea, its results might be relevant for many other countries that have experienced a rapid expansion in the supply of DHs over recent years...

Park, K. (2022). Doctoral Education, Job Mismatch, and Wage Consequences in South Korea: A Propensity Score Matching Approach. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 57(7), 1325–1342. https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096211052978