> some conflicts of interest are viewed as obvious. If I publish a journal article with my affiliation being Genentech, I don't have to state that my work is owned by Genentech.

That's simply NOT true...Nature's guidelines on declaring financial interests (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v412/n6849/full/412751a...) say that these include "Employment", defined as "Recent (that is, while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through publication of the paper."

Nature is covering this for one reason only: they stand to gain.