IP Advocate founder settles long-standing legal battle with UGARF

Apr 21 2010

In a move that positions IP Advocate (www.IPAdvocate.org) for its next chapter as a champion of research translation, founder Dr. Renee Kaswan today announced that she has settled her long-standing legal battle with the University of Georgia Research Foundation (UGARF).

“Frivolous Lawsuits Slow Innovation, as University Researchers with Big Ideas Make Lucrative Targets, Says IP Advocate Founder”

The $20.2 million settlement ends a seven-year dispute over a secret contract that UGARF entered with pharmaceutical company Allergan to market an ophthalmic formula including cyclosporine, to alleviate chronic dry eye disease by restoring normal tear function. Dr. Kaswan's invention is marketed as Restasis®, and is one of Allergan's top sellers.

In a separate news release issued today ["Frivolous Lawsuits Slow Innovation, as University Researchers with Big Ideas Make Lucrative Targets, Says IP Advocate Founder"], Dr. Kaswan provides additional background on the lawsuit and why her experience compelled her to create IP Advocate to fight for greater efficiency and freedom in translating academic inventions for public benefit, and to publicize rarely noticed corporate and university legal assaults on student and faculty inventors.

"I am glad to be out of court so I can focus my attention on the advocacy and policy work we've started at IP Advocate," said Dr. Kaswan, former University of Georgia Veterinary Ophthalmology professor and founder of Georgia Veterinary Specialists. "There is much to be done, and we have some exciting things on the horizon to improve the process of translating academic inventions into public use."

"Over the past year we've made significant progress in bringing to light some of the challenges facing academic researchers and some of the dangers in the status quo. We've introduced the idea of an Inventors' Bill of Rights, we've supported the concept of inventor choice in commercialization partners, we've called attention to the dangers of the patent reform proposal currently making its way through Congress, and we've initiated an important dialogue between inventors and technology transfer professionals who work to commercialize those inventions. But we've only just begun."

The original licensing deal Dr. Kaswan structured for the University of Georgia with Allergan would have netted the university more than $300 million. But Allergan secretly persuaded UGARF to negotiate a buy-down deal behind closed doors, excluding Dr. Kaswan from renegotiations of her patents' license. UGARF agreed to accept a severely undervalued monetization of its future royalties, drastically affecting the revenue flow to the university, the inventor and the taxpayers of Georgia. In the end, UGARF received $76 million from Allergan in total, while Allergan projects several billion in Restasis revenues.

"What should have been a moment of triumph, for me and for UGA, immediately turned into a legal morass involving frivolous and costly litigation, distracting me from my life's work," said Dr. Kaswan. "I want to help create a system in which inventors are protected from this kind of behavior in the future, so they can focus on the research and discoveries that will cure diseases and improve lives."