Supreme's Rule For Roche Over Stanford in Fed-Funds Patent Battle

06/06/2011

Supreme's Rule For Roche Over Stanford in Fed-Funds Patent Battle

The ruling came down today from on High. Roche has prevailed in its suit with Stanford over claimed patent infringement because it held co-ownership interests. Stanford claimed it owned the rights in question as a consequence of the work being funded by the Feds and deriving-from the Bayh-Dole Act. Read an earlier Big Red post for background.

Supreme Court Rules For Roche Over Stanford On Battle Over Patents & Federally Funded Research // Pharmalot.

Stanford was attempting to assert rights under Bayh-Dole as it said some of the research, conducted by one of its employees, was federally-funded. However, Roche asserted its ownership rights because the Stanford researcher in question worked on the project at Cetus [later purchased by Roche] facilities and signed away his ownership to Cetus -- and Roche said they conceived and completed the work as well.

The High Court, in a ruling penned by Chief Justice John Roberts, said that "The Bayh-Dole Act does not automatically vest title to federally funded inventions [the Stanford claim] in federal contractors or authorize contractors to unilaterally take title to such inventions."

Stanford had been supported by the Obama Justice Department in an amicus filing by the Solicitor General. Stanford and the US Government lose. Stanford predicts dire consequences from the ruing. Justice Roberts says the dire consequences won't materialize.