Profesor stole my words for his own patent

California
A professor in my University, who was not my graduate supervisor, wrote a US patent (sole inventor) that was finally awarded. I was sick to read his published patent as it contained large sections of text from my thesis work and subsequent papers and he did not have my permission, the permission of my supervisor or anyone else, to cite or use my work. No citations to my work were provided.
After an 18 month investiagtion, the University now admits that the patent application and the actual patent contains plagiarised material, and has offered me an explicit written apology. They blame a technical error in their Research Office and a scum-bag lawyer who wrote the patent that stole my words and ideas and equations etc!

I feel totally violated that my words and ideas have been stolen and are now being used in a patent that is bringing the University a little fame and fortune. I got screwed big time. The written apology indicates the University takes the responsibiliy and were to blame.

I need compensation - or even punitive damages.

What can be done?. Who can a poor student turn too?
Recent-Phd

I need compensation - or even punitive damages.

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Have you asked for some compenstation from the university?

What can be done?. Who can a poor student turn too?

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If the school isn't willing to work with you, then you need to talk with a lawyer -- maybe a lawyer can wrestle some sort of acceptable settlement out of them. Incorrect inventorship on a patent is grounds for invalidating a patent -- maybe you could threaten the school with filing a reexamination request with the USPTO unless they pay you some compensation and correct the inventorship on the patent. Finally, maybe you could threaten to report their IP counsel to the USPTO -- inequitable conduct or fraud on the patent office does nothing to further a patent attorney's career...

Other than that, your options are limited. I suspect that you probably signed some paperwork allowing the unversity to have ownership of anything you invented while working as a grad student, so you may not be entitled to any money anyway -- but you should at least get credit for your work, and be credited as an inventor if the facts warrant it.

Plagiarism

Thanks for your comments. I doubt there can be co-inventorship as all my text was published prior to submission and is therefore "prior art".

The problem is one of plagiarism, a serious academic offence if the Prof had written the patent application. However, the patent lawyer wrote the patent and so the university has determined it was the lawyer, working as an agent of the university, that plagiarised my material. Interesting verdict - despite the USPTO-required statements prior to submission that the Prof was responsible for the content and accuracy of the application.

Is plagiarism normal and allowed in the legal profession? As the text is published, it was under copyright to a science journal.
As I student I would have been expelled at the extent of the plagiarised text!!

I doubt there can be co-inventorship as all my text was published prior to submission and is therefore "prior art".

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Well, as long as the patent application was submitted within a year of the publication of the art, there is no "prior art" problem.

If you are worried about plagiarism, and the university's reaction to it, well, there's not really anything that can be done from a legal perspective -- the school is going to handle things the way the school wants to handle things. If you want, you could file a complaint with the USPTO, but unless you want to hire a lawyer and really pursue things, that's about all you can do.

I guess I am like most clients - I will pursue the case if there is a chance I would make something out of it - either as recognition that the patent contains my text or in financial terms, either because I am owed something or as hush money to stop be making the whole thing public.
Public disclosure was certainly "embarrass" the school.

Just not sure of the legal definitions - all I know it can't be correct to copy so much of my material without any credits. I feel violated.
R