Laws and Litigation

Legal Assaults on Faculty Inventors

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:05:44 GMT

In myopic pursuit of the royalty streams associated with research inventions, university technology commercialization offices (TCOs) have engaged underhanded lawyers and unleashed them on prominent student and faculty inventors. It is unconscionable that these legal assaults originate from esteemed institutions of higher learning that profess to be “Building a better world.” Their greed driven lawsuits are destroying our brightest scientists and their motivation to innovate for th

Bayh-Dole, Not a Bulldozer

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:11:53 GMT

The federal Bayh-Dole Act was enacted to bring the benefits of federally-funded research to the public. However, many technology commercialization managers and their attorneys wrongfully contend that Bayh-Dole confiscated the personal property of faculty members and gave it to universities.

Since it was enacted in 1980, the Bayh-Dole or Federal Patent Reform Act, which governs technology transfer at research universities, has generated results never intended by its spon

Scholarly Works Are Not â€œWork-for-Hireâ€�

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:26:28 GMT

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Statement on Copyright says the idea of "work-for-hire" should not apply to scholarly research. In a work-for-hire situation, employee-prepared works are under the control of the employer, while traditional scholarly works give faculty members control of the subject matter, intellectual approach, and conclusions of their work. This is the very essence of academic freedom.

However, many IP attorneys wrongfully asse

PET-CT Scanner Inventor Victim of Malicious Litigation

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:42:33 GMT

When the University of Pittsburgh recruited world renowned physicist Dr. David Townsend to join its faculty in 1993, he never dreamt his tenure there would end amid spurious legal attacks on his character and ethics.

The preeminent inventor and his collaborator developed a means of integrating the Positron Emission Tomograph (PET) and Computerized Axial Tomograph (CT) scanners to greatly i

Apathy Turned to Avarice? Mizzou Charges Researcher with Misconduct

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:43:19 GMT

Dr. Galen Suppes, award-winning researcher from the University of Missouri (UM), is gearing up a countersuit against the university over rights to his inventions. In 2006, Suppes received the EPA's highest honor, the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, but after several years of discord with UM, was accused by the university of a variety of misdeeds related to his intellectual property rights

What are the Costs When Academic Researchers are Isolated from Peers?

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:35:15 GMT

Dr. Stephen Badylak of Purdue University and Alan Spievack of Harvard University were independently researching the use of Extracellular Matrix (ECM) in tissue re-growth using similar, but not identical processes. While Badylak was working with human tissue regeneration, Spievack's research was for veterinary application.

Spievack met Badylak at a conference where the Purdue researcher was speaking. After their meeting, Spievack began wor

Supreme Court Overrides Legislation Limiting State Sovereignty:
Will Congress Push Back?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:03:20 GMT

With patent "reform" again on the congressional agenda, will lawmakers push back on other critical intellectual property issues? In 1992, Congress passed two acts pertaining to intellectual property, the Patent and Plant Variety Protection Remedy Clarification Act (Patent Remedy Act) and the Trademark Remedy Clarification Act. Over a decade ago, Congress had observed that states and their universities had become big players in filing patent lawsuits and had constructed the Patent Remedy Act t

Manufacturers and Small Business Raise Voices Against Current Patent Reform Legislation

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:28:12 GMT

MAPP (Manufacturing Alliance on Patent Policy) and the NSBA (National Small Business Association) have contacted Capitol Hill leaders to voice their opposition to the patent "reform" legislation now under consideration.

Key components of both the House and Senate bills are:

limits on damages for infringers based on apportionment and willfulness
change from "first to invent" to "first to file" system
creation of

Patent Reform: What's at Stake, Why it Matters

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:20:01 GMT

Lately, a great deal of attention has been focused on patent "reform", with a focus on Senator Patrick Leahy's Senate Bill 515 and its companion bill in the House H.R. 1260. However, another Senate bill has been proposed by Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, S. 610. Senator Kyl proposed an identical bill last September a

USPTO Repeals Controversial Patent Rules Implemented by Bush Administration

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:56:56 GMT

David Kappos, recently appointed Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, signed a final rule yesterday to rescind contentious regulations enacted by the USPTO under the Bush administration.

At the time the regulations were published, the USPTO justified them as a measure to address the bottleneck of patent applicatio