COPYRIGHTED OR PATENTED MATERIAL AND UNAUTHORIZED USE, PLUS ADDITIONAL FACTS AND HISTORY
Jonathan N. Roth Ph.D. June 9, 2022
During the decades since the start of this business, it has evolved through several registered names, including RCR SCIENTIFIC, INC (2001-2006), MICROLOGY LABORATORIES, LLC (2006-2019), AND THE CURRENT NAME OF ROTH BIOSCIENCE, LLC (2019). During this time, Dr. Jonathan N. Roth was a principal and has served as the CEO continuously.
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
Prior to, and during this time span, Dr. Roth worked actively in developing, testing and marketing new inventions. During these activities, he discovered numerous new, previously unknown properties that were released in written form and disclosed as articles in professional journals or included as automatically copyrighted inserts in his web sites. These articles contained useful information available to readers of his web sites and he was happy to make it available. However, during recent years, it has come to attention that some entities have copied Roth’s work (containing his name as author and originator, and copied it into their own web site or writings as if it were their own work. This is not only a violation of Roth’s Copyright, but constitutes plagiarism (total dishonesty). Also, some of his patents have and continue to be violated.
Sometimes, Roth’s work was done in past decades which has been superseded by more and superior inventions, hence Copyright dates of articles on the Roth website may vary from 2006-2022, depending upon when the work and its development took place. Also, an earlier copyright date may indicate that earlier work may be related to more current work that is an improvement or a superior replacement for the older work. In fact, newer discoveries may or should replace a method described in older work. In Science, there is always new information that may overshadow previous technology. Roth Bioscience attempts to include both earlier methods and better recent discoveries. However, the older work may contain results and earlier discovered information that should not be overlooked. So if one finds plagiarized material, it is wise to go to the original source (the site where it first appeared) to determine if newer and better discoveries are posted.
Dr. Roth has experienced both violation of his copyrighted work as well as his patents by ambitious corporations, individuals, agencies, and even Professional Organizations who claimed ownership in the face of his previously copyrighted or published patents. He laments this trend of competition and dishonesty in the Scientific Community.
Last, it should be clearly understood, that neither Roth, nor any of the above mentioned Corporations have ever given permission to any other person or entity to copy or use any of his copyrighted work or plagiarize it.
PATENTED
A number of commercially available products are used to detect various Coliforms via visual indicia (such as discriminating colors detectable under visible and/or ultra violet light). These products are satisfactory for many purposes. However, due to the concurrent presence of non-target micro-organisms, specifically Aeromonas spp, false positive test results can arise when testing for Coliforms with these prior products. Briefly, the false positive test results arise because these “copycat” products use the same combination of enzyme substrates that were developed and used by a Roth Bioscience predecessor, RCR Scientific, Inc, in the late 1980s. For example, where the galactoside is used as the marker for Coliforms, Aeromonas spp can be present and provide a nearly identical chromogenic pink/red response. This results in the test sample being interpreted to have higher number of Coliforms than is actually the case, a FALSE POSITIVE indication.
R-CARD® ECC-A (patent pending) provides more accurate Coliform detection. Aeromonas species, if present, are initially virtually undetectable, very light yellow colonies that are very hard to detect due to the R-CARD® background. The best way to determine if Aeromonads are present is to do a side-by-side comparison of the test sample on one R-CARD® ECC-A and one R-CARD® ECC and count the Coliform results. If there are more dark pink/red colonies on the standard R-CARD® ECC test card than on the R-CARD® ECC-A, the differential indicates the presence and numbers of Aeromonas in the sample. To enumerate, simply count the number of colonies of each type. Additionally, the pink/red colonies on the R-CARD® can be allowed to mature to the point at which any Aeromonas colonies are visible as faint yellow colonies that can easily be seen and counted.
The R-CARD®ECC-A Medium (patent pending) (ROTH BIOSCIENCE LLC) eliminates the misreading of Aeromonas spp. as Coliforms, an inherent feature of R-CARD®ECC and its numerous “COPYCAT” MEDIA. These “COPYCAT” MEDIA are currently being advertised and sold as specific for the detection and identification of E. coli and Coliform bacteria only. Many of them are also in violation of Patent No. U.S. 8,008.059, and may have been inaccurately approved by officially well-known agencies.
INFORMATION AND APPLICATIONS OF THE R-CARD® ECC-A and R-CARD® C-A
The trademarked product ColiChrome that was developed by Roth and patented in the U.S.A. by his first Company, RCR Scientific Inc. Because RCR was a start-up company without extra funds, and because the ownership was not sure of the total importance of the Colichrome, patents were not filed world-wide with the assumption that if the product was successful, the USA market would be substantial and satisfactory. As it turned out, the invention was very important as it represented the first Microbiological Diagnostic Medium that used two different colored chromogenic enzyme substrates in a medium, which allowed the growth and quantification of two different microbes in the same culture, with one exhibiting a blue color and the other a pink/red color.
Until that time, chromogenic substrates had been used diagnostically (5br-4cl-3 indolyl compounds), but they were limited to producing only greenish colored microbial colonies (CFUs).
Roth worked with a synthetic chemist, to formulate an enzyme detecting compound that resulted in a pink/red colony color (trademarked “red gal”, now commonly called “Salmon gal”), so that when a medium containing both compounds with one being 5br-4-cl-3 indolyl beta glucuronide and the other being 6-chloro beta 3- indolyl galactoside. When Roth combined the two chromogens in a new medium, E. coli grew as blue colonies and other coliforms grew as pink/red colonies. Two initial patents were filed and granted to cover this invention. The first was filed April 20, 1990 and granted May 11, 1993 as US Pat # 5210022, and the second was filed March 1, 1993 and granted February 28, 1995 as US Pat #5393662 with the assignee for both being RCR Scientific, Inc. This information appears to contradicts contents of an article published by ASM Microbe on September 11, 2020, authored by Prinzi and Rhode, titled “How Chromagar™Revolutionized Microbe Identification”, which states that Alain Rambach was the inventor and developer of the use of the pink/red 6-Chloro-3 Indoxyl-B-D GALACTOSIDE AND OTHER SUGAR BASED CHROMOGENS. His claims are easy to refute if one checks his patent dates and the appearance of “his” copycat work. A letter from Roth to ASM about this matter was never acknowledged. However, it can be noted that Roth’s ColiChrome was apparently never sold or offered for sale in the U.S. until Roth’s original patents expired, at which time not only did Chromagar and other large media making corporations promptly copy and offer it in the U.S., where it continues to be very popular in its original form.
This prior situation continues in the face of Roth’s recent discovery that his original thinking that the use of the pink/red compounds was specific to only true Coliform bacteria (including E. coli) was not the case. By accident, through a series of studies, he discovered that another (non-coliform) bacterium, almost identical to the true Coliforms, also grew as pink/red colonies on his ColiChrome/Coliscan media. As a result of this new knowledge, Roth invented a new variation of his original ColiChrome and has filed a new patent for this invention.
To Roth’s knowledge, no company has contacted Roth to this time, and they continue to use the error containing formula that has become so popular. It should be added that numerous companies are using Roth’s pink/red (salmon gal or gluc) in violation of a currently valid patent against this use.
The above revelations are a sad reminder to Dr. Roth of the current lack of ethics in portions of the scientific community that incorporate plagiarism and dishonesty in favor of getting rich at others expense and advantage.